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Category: Instant Sean
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One Shot…
My wonderful BOLD wife Joanna Watson Donahue took a chance, left her comfort zone because she knew one thing… let me tell you a story to illustrate it:
For my first wife Angela & my first house, it was going to the house that had a tree stump in the middle of the living room. The sellers never had the stump removed when they built the house, they just put a glass table on top of it.
Don’t get me started about the cow house that had cows EVERYWHERE including the wall paper and didn’t have a working HVAC system inside….
Or the house whose sunken living room had a spa in the middle of it.
Joanna knows that every family has a “home” story. Those were the stories I still tell today because when we saw the teacup roses outside our current home we knew it was perfect.
Right now, she’s looking for the first referral, the first opportunity, the first person who will discover that she is willing, wanting and able to do whatever it takes to be their real estate agent.
Enimem said it in “Lose Yourself,”
“Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted, in one moment
Would you capture it, or just let it slip?”She’s willing to capture it. Are you willing to give her one shot?
Try her app : -
A Sad Trip Around The Sun
On my birthday I found out about an old friend of mine from a divorce care counseling group I belonged to, passing on from a lengthy illness. I was sad but glad, for the pain he had been under had been excruciating, and he need not suffer anymore.
When I first got divorced we were paired to talk about our experiences, praying for each other and trying our best supportive act for each other. We would talk about our kids in our one on one sessions, we both had a daughter and a son, his older than mine, as he was 20 years my senior.
When it was time for his daughter wedding, she chose her mom’s new husband to walk her down the aisle to my friends dismay. When the speeches came, everyone spoke but my friend and he was further humiliated by not given a solo father daughter dance.
His daughter split the dance, giving him the first half of the dance and then giving an extended dance with her step father.
My friend, paid for the honeymoon and for moving expenses closer to a job which would put her closer to Waco and him.
But shortly after the honeymoon, her “plans changed,” and she isolated her father even more. She joined her step dad’s company, she moved to a house provided by her step dad and mom and slowly stopped talking to her dad. She had country club tastes but she would tell anyone that her dad was just “a bum.”
I feel that pain every day when I don’t get to see my kids, and I can only imagine how he felt.
Though he never married again, Steven put a foot forward doing whatever it took to be available for his daughter and he died a broken man never reconciling with her.
Now this afternoon, the executor read the will and his daughter was left a picture of Steven and her where she’s looked up to him with loving wonder.
His son Tony moved to California for a job a long time ago. But he sent his dad a card for every holiday, birthday and special occasion. Though separated early in his life just like his older sister, he still treated his father like the man who gave him unconditional love.
In the end Steven died alone but he knew he was loved.
His daughter got a photo.
Tony got everything else.
God bless you Steven and may you Rest In Peace my friend.
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Student Spotlight: Long Road Finally Leads to Graduation |
Twenty-six years after graduating high school, Sean Donahue will obtain his Texas Tech degree.
Source: Student Spotlight: Long Road Finally Leads to Graduation | August | 2014 | Texas Tech Today | TTU
For Sean Donahue, the road to graduation took longer than most. But on Saturday (Aug. 9), 26 years after completing high school, he will receive his bachelor’s degree in university studies from Texas Tech University.
Donahue began his pursuit for a college degree in 1988, and after a variety of factors left him just short of graduation, he returned to Texas Tech in January 2014. His long road will end Saturday at United Supermarkets Arena when he partakes in summer commencement ceremonies.
“Finishing my degree is the culmination of hard work,” Donahue said. “It is like a first drink of water after a hard day’s work in the sun—not only refreshing but satisfying.”
After graduating in 1988 from Fairview Park High School in Ohio, Donahue attended college in New York but wasn’t happy with his experience and the distance from his home. He moved to Texas and worked for Radio Shack until 1991 when his sister passed away from cancer.
“This gave me the motivation to go back to school,” Donahue said. “I came to Texas Tech in 1992 and bounced around from business to mass communications until the birth of my daughter Shelby.”
In order to support his new family, Donahue left school only a few hours short of graduation to work full-time. He currently is the director of digital media and special projects for the Lubbock area at Wilks Broadcasting.
Returning to Texas TechDonahue said he decided to return to Texas Tech after talking with JoAnn Grant, professor in the College of Media & Communications, during halftime of a Texas Tech football game, and Todd Chambers, department chairperson for journalism and electronic media, at the KTXT reunion. Both professors encouraged Donahue to become a part of the social media graduate program that was being created at the time.
Chambers said he has known Sean for several years and had him speak to several of his classes.
“I knew he had worked at KTXT-FM when he was in school; but had forgotten just how involved he was,” Chambers said. “Honestly, when I learned he was still needing a handful of credits, I encouraged him to wrap up his degree and then consider pursuing our graduate program. I’ve been fortunate to see him on a couple of occasions in the past few months and have smiled every time I have seen him – just knowing about this wonderful accomplishment.”
“No one will ever be able to take this accomplishment from me. And I can say with pride, I am a Red Raider.” – Sean Donhahue
Donahue, 44, completed 16 of his last 19 hours online with a 4.0 GPA and said this experience has taught him anything can be achieved with the right support.
“If it was not for the support from my wife, family, friends and some great Texas Tech professors, I may have not attempted this challenge,” he said.
Donahue’s family includes wife, Joanna, and kids, Shelby, 15, and Ryan, 12. Joanna graduated Texas Tech in 2008 with a degree in public relations.
“When I started back, my wife bought me a Texas Tech Alumni sticker to put on my car and told me I could not put it on until I graduated,” he said. “She tacked the sticker right above my computer in my sight line. Whenever I passed my computer and thought of taking a day off, I would see the sticker and sit down to get back to work.”
Calling Lubbock HomeThrough the opportunities Texas Tech has provided, Donahue helped the University Medical Center Children’s Hospital raise $3,400,000 with the KLLL Children’s Miracle Network Radiothon. He also has accepted awards from both the Texas Special Olympics and the Children’s Miracle Network International Radio Awards.
Donahue said after searching for a university that felt like home, he decided to come to Texas Tech after falling in love with the city of Lubbock.
“It was big enough so I did not feel like I was trapped and small enough where, when you did good things, people noticed,” he said.
Donahue has many tips for those returning to school to finish their degrees, including setting a block of time each day to focus on your goal, setting your ambitions in front of you and communicating what your goals are with your advisors.
“No one will ever be able to take this accomplishment from me,” Donahue said. “And I can say with pride, I am a Red Raider.”
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Words, Just words
There are many lessons in life fathers teach their children. But only one necessary lesson. I bring this up because I failed in teaching this lesson and it hurts my soul.
My friends and family know of the torment I suffered at the loss of my sister Tara. I never said goodbye or that I loved her and those lack of finality still haunt me to this day, lesser now than in the past.
But I learned my lesson and make an effort each time to wish people as I leave their presence, my fond wishes of them. When my brother died in 2006 in a car accident, the last words I said to him was “I love you.” When he died, I had closure and peace. I am horrible at hand writing but my wonderful wife is very specific about thank you notes. She sends them like leaves in the wind in the fall.
Give thanks. It seems simple and easy but millennial’s bristle at the thought of thanking anybody. They think they deserve everything. I once had an intern who at the end of his internship ask me where his office would be when he got a job with our company. I told him offices weren’t handed out to starting employees and earned from hard work. He quit because he wasn’t getting an office.
Give me a break.
I try to tell my kids, my friends and even my family how much I care about them every chance I get. I never know if that one chance I fail to say it will be the one time they need it the most.
Simple words, but they have power and meaning. I Love You.
I Love You Joanna. I tell her it every day because my life without her had no meaning.
I Love You Shelby & Ryan. I tell them it every time we speak because I never know how long I will be on this earth.
I Love You Mom & Dad. Because as they are in their golden years, I’m not sure how many times I will get to tell them those words.
They are just words Sean, they don’t have any power.
Tell that to a son who wishes he could tell his dad Happy Father’s Day one more time.
Tell that to a daughter who wishes she could hold her mom tight one more time.
Words you say. They have more power than any hateful words you can think of. I can ignore hate, I can shuffle hate to ignorance. But you can’t ignore love. In your darkest days, in your miserable nights, love will always shine through.
Love means I understand you are eighteen and scared. It means I’ve been there too and I want you to learn from the mistakes I made so you don’t have to have the pain that I have. Your heart won’t hurt from being as broken as my has been.
Love is forever, so when you have determined my punishment is over I will be here.
Because I love you forever, that’s what father’s do.