Insights from Q2 of #100daychallenge

So what started out from a wonderful anniversary dinner with my wife was quickly becoming a habit and a tool to help me every morning. As I entered Q2 of the challenge it was the first thing I thought of every morning when I woke. I would rush to get the ready head off to the office and have it done before taking Avery to school. It wasn't a chore but instead a reward and a wonderful way to start my day.

I wasn't deep into Q2 when it was clear that I wasn't the only one enjoying this. Not only was I starting to get feedback on posts themselves like this: "You have no idea how much it meant to me to have this kind of recognition and gratitude! It put a smile on my face! Thank you Dennis T. Harabin for all your contributions to the NJ tech community!"

After about 1 month of doing these "shout-outs," it became clear that I needed to put some structure in place to make it easier on my end to know whom I would offer the shout-out to each day. Thus #spartansaturday was started because there were a lot of people from Immaculata who have had a huge impact on my life.

I also added in #wildcatwednesday to address the many Villanovains who have also had a huge impact on my life.

It was Day 37 that my Dad went into the hospital for what was supposed to be a routine surgery so that he could start Chemo Therapy that next. I believe it was actually supposed to be a same-day surgery or at worst just a stay over one night.

Yet that was when things started to change rapidly, my Dad's vitals showed signs of much more pressing issues. With it being the Covid Era, there could only be one visitor a day. So it was determined on Saturday night that I would be the one who got to visit dad on Sunday.

So when I woke up Sunday morning I purposely did not do a shout-out because I knew already, I would be seeing the person that day who taught me so much. Visiting hours did not start until 12 Noon so I just did my other work and prepared to see my dad.

When I got to see my Dad it was a beautiful day and a beautiful visit. We spoke about how he had planned to stop by the bank to do the finalize things on Monday to wrap up his brother's estate now that the state FINALLY got us the necessary NJ Tax Waivers. Don't even get me started in NJ -Inheritance Tax Returns just trust me, we had just spent a ton of time working on this over the previous months and now he was upset it would take a few more days to finish.

We discussed his personal wishes for when he passed as we had regularly done over this time working on his brother's estate. But mostly we just talked about Villanova Basketball and what Samuels and Gillespie returning to the team would mean for next year. We talked about IRL and various racing. It was an awesome visit and we know that every visit can be our last. That wasn't the overall theme, it was just a wonderful time together.

So I came home and put this post together. And my Mom and sister played it for him while they visited him the next day.

It was about 4:15 or so when my wife got the call and I knew at that hour what it was about. So I jumped out of bed, got dressed, and waited for my sister to pick me up and meet the rest of the family at the hospital. Ironically it was living this #attitude of #gratitude that gave me so much strength as we arrived at the hospital. Based on his condition they were now allowing 2 whole visitors at a time. Since the entire family could not be there together, I let the others know that I would just wait in the lobby as they took turns spending time and saying goodbye. It wasn't that I was in denial, it was actually the opposite. Because I had been blessed to have such a wonderful conversation and time on Sunday, I did not need to see him like this. I was blessed to have such a wonderful day less than 48 hours earlier as a final memory that why in the world should I ruin that. Unfortunately, I have seen unconscious relatives die and it isn't nearly as beautiful as my final memory so I was good.

After he passed, we all went to the diner for breakfast as Dad loved a good diner breakfast. When my sister dropped me off at my house I didn't go in. Instead, I went straight to my office. I had taken a challenge and as hard as it was I wasn't about to quit now. The reality was as I set up ready to do a shout-out because that made me feel good. I couldn't think of anyone for such a critical time in my life. And then just like the footprints in the sand poem, God just carried me through my most difficult shout-out ever

I could not get back in front of the camera at that point so I thought let me simply share my last memories of our beautiful Sunday. As I tied the videos together, I thought about it. Should I post this or not? I said F### it, this is for me and I don't give a S##T what anyone else thinks. Spoiler alert, you will hear from my daughter on Day 44 I do tend to use a lot of bad words.

According to the raw metrics, one of the most popular shout out to date wasn't to a single person at all but to a Mason Jar. Yet I think my daughter Avery may have a little more to do with it. So in self-defense, although I am not afraid to use really bad words on occasion my daughter insists, that dumb, stupid, and words like that are equally as bad as the typical four-letter words that most adults consider bad. Being from Jersey, yea those words my daughter considers bad, I admit I use them all the time. :)

So there you have it, this was Q2 of the 100-day challenge. It was a time where life got pretty real, emotions varied greatly, but most of all it was when I realized what a great decision it was to create and take this challenge. #attitude #gratitude, #100daychallenge