Overcoming the doubters

It’s hard to keep reaching toward your dream when you’re faced with rejection at every turn. Every day, it seems, I’m getting rejection letters from jobs I’ve applied to… jobs I know I’m qualified for… jobs I know I would do good at. But it doesn’t matter what I know. The rejection letters keep coming, and I feel like giving up.

But if you look at the lives of so many famous people — from Albert Einstein to J.K. Rowling — you’ll see that they, too, faced disappointment and rejection over and over again. But from being the most recognized faces in cinema, sports, and literature, they’ve proven one big point: Don’t let a bunch of “Nos” get in the way of you pushing for what you believe in.

I’m holding on to that hope today, hoping that things will turn out Awesome.

Celebrating the strength during struggle

Photo art and two determined, loving moms are changing the views of pediatric cancer. After Liz Salguero and Dawn Ladenheim met in a support group for moms and siblings of children with cancer, Circle of Care was born. Circle of Care, which is a Wilton, Conn., nonprofit organization, provides emotional and financial assistance to families who have children who have been diagnosed with cancer.

As with many of their special projects, Life Within The Journey is a revealing photo art exhibit that is changing the lives of cancer patients and their families. This breathtaking photo exhibit, developed by Jeff Salguero, features 22 pediatric cancer patients and aims to change the view of childhood cancer. The goal of the traveling exhibit is to invite everyone to see the other side of a cancer diagnosis: the bravery, the spirit, the hope and to celebrate families who have endured so much. The photographer, Jeanna Shepard, does a beautiful job highlighting each child’s personality and bringing inspiration to all who see it. Accompanying text, written by Christine Baer, tells the powerful story of each child’s journey. These heroic children are patients of the Smilow Cancer Center at Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital.

Life Within The Journey has been on exhibit in eight towns throughout Connecticut including the State Capital, which was sponsored by State Senator Ted Kennedy Jr., himself a pediatric cancer survivor who said, “Circle of Care’s powerful exhibit, ‘Life Within the Journey,’ reveals the other side of pediatric cancer; the side where life – in all its beautiful and complex detail – marches on.”

Awesome

Helping Peru

People of Peru are getting new opportunities thanks to one Awesome high school student. Ziggy Hallgarten, a 17-year-old junior at Staples High School is Westport, Conn., takes his entrepreneur spirit and helps others in return.

Ziggy loves to wear winter hats; in fact, he wears them year round. After ordering several different brands online, he realized nothing really fit his style. Ziggy traveled to Peru twice with his mother for business and decided to see if he could hire locals in Peru to design his dream hats. After some design and thread tweaking, the hat-making is in full swing. He pays the locals $10 dollars to make the hats, helping the impoverished community, and then also donates 10 percent of his profits to the nonprofit group Community Plates. His love for hats and helping others is improving lives across the world!

Awesome!

Comfort at funerals

Lulu is a very special kind of therapy dog. Funerals are an extremely hard time for family and friends of lost loved ones. The Ballard-Durand Funeral & Cremation Services is a caring and compassionate funeral home that guides families to a meaningful ceremony to honor the life and memory of a loved one. The owner, Matthew Fiorillo, realized the power his dog Lulu could have in helping people in their time of need.

This Goldendoodle joined the Westchester County funeral homes and has been trained for duty as their very own certified Therapy Dog. Affectionately called the firm’s “Comfort Companion,” Lulu follows the lead of service dogs often used in health care settings, such as hospitals, nursing homes and universities. She provides families with unconditional love and support, as well as a subtle distraction from their grief.

Human Touch

A program at a Pittsburgh hospital is showing how impactful the human touch can be.

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Magee-Women’s Hospital is home to a cuddling program designed for volunteers to snuggle and comfort babies who have been exposed to opioids during their mothers’ pregnancies and who show withdrawal symptoms.

Maribeth McLaughlin, chief nursing officer and vice president of Patient Care Services at the hospital, told The Huffington Post the volunteers provide a way to calm and console the babies, who can be a part of the program from one week or up to eight weeks.

“It’s great for our babies because it provides them with care and comfort, and it‘s an assistance to families who may not be able to be there the whole time,” she said.

Since starting 10 years ago, the program has grown from five or six volunteers to 25, partly because of growing rates of neonatal abstinence syndrome, according to McLaughlin. Before being able to cuddle the babies, program volunteers must submit an application and references, be interviewed, undergo clearances and adhere to health standards including taking a tuberculosis test and getting a flu shot during flu season.

In a study published in 2016, Notre Dame psychology researcher Darcia Narvaez stressed the benefits of cuddling after finding that providing “affection, play and support” to kids throughout childhood contributes to their well-being as adults. Volunteer cuddler Nancy Stebler, who has been a part of the program for almost four years, has seen more immediate effects.

“I think that the human touch and the cuddling and swaddling really helps to give them comfort and calm them down,” she said.

Though they are there to provide comfort to the babies, the volunteers also benefit from the program, according to Stebler. She said her work at the hospital has been “a huge eye-opener” when it comes to learning about neonatal abstinence syndrome. Most importantly though, she described her time comforting the babies as a “gratifying” and “humbling experience.”

“It just makes us feel so rewarded that we can bring such peace and calming as they are trying to go through such a difficult time,” she said.

Remembering

Around 5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, which slowly attacks cognition, robbing patients of a lifetime of memories.

YouTube channel WatchCut Video recently sat down with several older adults, ages 49 to 75, who have been diagnosed with the disease, to ask them to share some of their most important memories.

From their earliest remembrances of being wonderstruck children, to first kisses, to their most recent recollections, they reveal what they can.

While they sometimes struggle to recall certain things, it’s the most powerful memories that seem to stick. And in a most emotional revelation, they share what they hope they will never forget. For one woman it’s her children; for one man it’s his marriage.

Just proves that while the debilitating disease can rob patients of their memories, it hopefully can never erase true love.

A do-over graduation

Call it a graduation recreation.

A high school held a second ceremony for a student who missed graduation due to a coma.

Scott Dunn was supposed to graduate from East Juniata High School in McAlisterville, Pennsylvania, on May 25. But on May 22, on his way to a track meet, Dunn got into a car accident that put him into a coma, causing him to miss one of the biggest days of his young life.

“I remember waking up in the hospital and asking my mom what day it was. She told me it was the 28th,” Dunn told WHTM. “First thing I said, I looked at her and said, ‘I missed my graduation’.”

When East Juniata’s principal, Benjamin Fausey, heard that Dunn had woken from his coma, he told Dunn and his mom, Karen, the school “wanted to do something special for him.”

That special thing? Graduation 2.0.

On June 14, three weeks after the other students officially graduated, 50 seniors from Dunn’s graduating class of 80, showed up in caps and gowns for ceremonial do-over for one.

“It’s like a reunion,” one teacher told The Lewistown Sentinel as she smiled through tears.

Fausey told ABC News that Dunn got to lead his classmates in a procession to “Pomp and Circumstance,” and as Dunn walked across the stage to get his diploma, graduates erupted into applause.

“At the first ceremony I spoke to you about perseverance,” Fausey said during Dunn’s ceremony according to The Lewistown Sentinel. “It’s because of his perseverance that Scotty is with us here today.”

A letter between brothers

Some things come full circle in the most beautiful way.

Robert Hemenway recently shared a photo on Reddit of a heartfelt letter his younger brother, Logan, wrote to him two decades ago. Both siblings have served in the military and back in 1996, Logan gave the note to Robert during the older brother’s basic training. So this year, on Logan’s last day of basic training, Robert sent the letter back to his younger brother, who is now 25.

And the words are still heartbreakingly sweet.

“Dear Rob, I love you so much. If you have a war and die, I hope you take this letter to heaven [because] I don’t want you to forget me. I love you very very much,” the letter from then-5-year-old Logan reads. “I got Nintendo games on Tuesday and I was happy and I hope you’re happy.”

The words quickly went viral on Reddit as social media users were moved by the brothers’ relationship.

Robert, who is now 40 years old, told The Huffington Post that he was 19 when he received the note. When he saw it, he was overcome with emotion.

“I was at basic training in Fort Knox, Kentucky, when I received the letter. When I got it, I was under an immense amount of stress, and it made me cry,” Robert said. “The pure innocence of the statements were something that I really needed at the time.”

The 40-year-old added that he’d also received letters from his other siblings and folded all of them up to keep in his wallet. When Robert got out of the Army, he took the letters out of his wallet and stored them away safely, eventually sharing the note with Logan.

“He couldn’t believe that I had kept the letter that long, but he was thankful,” Robert said.

The power of hugs

I come from a hugging family. We’re Italian, so we hug. It’s almost like one of those mathematical certainties. Like pi.

There’s something powerful in a hug. It’s a human connection that lets us know the other person cares enough to make close physical contact with you. And sometimes that’s all we need on a rough day to turn things around.

Don’t believe me that a hug can be a powerful force? When this toddler hugs his friend, he gets so excited that he erupts into applause and shrieks of joy. He can’t help himself from hugging her again….and again….and again. The little girl is a good sport about all his hugs, until she finally, adorably, decides she’s had enough. Because, after all, if you give out all your hugs today, what about tomorrow?

Awesome!

Go ask Dad

Ninety-four percent of teenagers ask the Internet for advice before their dads. On Father’s Day we wanted to change that. To show the power of dads we pitted dad vs. the Internet. The results proved that this Father’s Day, if you’re fortunate enough to have him still around in your life, you should go ask dad.

Super Ewan

You’ve never met a superhero like this before. You’ve heard of the classics like Superman and Batman… but my new favorite would have to be 9-year-old SUPER EWAN! On the fourth Saturday of each month Super Ewan, along with his family and Super Volunteers, goes down to Roosevelt Park in Detroit to distribute food, clothing and basic necessities to the less fortunate. This 9-year old has a passion to help the homeless! Equipped with his superhero attire and a lot of help from his parents, he is changing the lives of thousands of homeless individuals.

In addition to their bi-weekly trips to Detroit, on the second Sunday of each month he holds an adventure in Chesterfield, MI. On these given days, they are providing food, clothing and necessities to low income families that need assistance. “We can all be a superhero to someone!” is Super Ewan’s motto and certainly proves it to be true each and every day!

An incredible photo

This is one photobomb that’s actually bomb AF.

Chinese couple Yiqin Lu and Hedong Zhang were choosing photos to put in their wedding album when they came across a peculiar one — an image of Zhang, the husband, taken about 15 years before the pair met, according to a HuffPost translation of the Nanhu Evening Newspaper.

The couple spotted someone in the background who appeared to be Lu’s mother, Yanfeng. And sure enough, the mom confirmed that it was indeed her in the photo.

“This is incredible,” Lu, 25, said of the photo, according to a HuffPost translation of Hangzhou Daily. “If there hadn’t been a picture, I would have thought this type of story were a fantasy. Now I do believe in destiny.”

With some further digging, the couple also discovered that the photo’s backstory turned out to be even more astonishing. According to the Nanhu Evening Newspaper, Lu, who was 9 years old at the time, was also on that trip to Ling Shan. In fact, both families had taken the same bus to visit the Grand Buddha, and even used the same tour company.

The couple, who ended up telling the unlikely story to their wedding guests, say the photo, which is now 16 years old, is proof of their relationship was meant to be.

“My husband said, ‘Although we didn’t know each other then, the skies must’ve planned this for us 16 years ahead of time,’” Lu said, according to Hangzhou Daily.“With this incredible story, we’ll cherish our love even more.”