Shouting Out to @carynsullivan and Her Wonderful Presence in Front of The Camera.

For the last year, Caryn Sullivan signed up to be my program manager at the Connecticut Writing Project, a part-time gig that helps me to promote student and teacher writing, organizes conversations with important people, and tames my wackiness with her professional expertise. She was enrolled in my EN 411 course where she was assigned to present and WOW'd everyone. She is a natural communicator, especially when live and in person. She radiates energy, positivity, and kindness (and it's one of the reasons we featured her at the Writing Our Lives-Digital Ubuntu conference last spring).

Caryn is a two-time cancer survivor and has dedicated her life to clean and healthy living. When she's not parenting her awesome boy, running activities for her son's school, or managing CWP's programs, she's traveling the country to speak to audiences about her life story or appearing on television programs sharing her expertise. She was on CT Style this week and I needed to share her clean product presentation here. I wanted to celebrate her wisdom and applaud the focus she has on helping others think about lifestyle choices.

Our bodies are a sanctuary and post-Easter, I'm realizing that my sanctuary has become a garbage dump of Cadbury Eggs, Malted Milk Balls, potatoes, and beer. Such is the life of bunny rabbit festivities. I told Caryn that I'm thankful that I don't think of beauty products and their effects on my skin and in my blood, because I'm limited to only a few. Yet, when I think about all the other stuff men and women do to themselves with products, I can't help but wonder, "What's actually in that stuff?" I know that my lungs are enflamed simply by walking through the beauty section of a department store and that numerous deodorants cause my armpits to blister. I can only imagine what it does if it gets inside the body. And I parallel this when thinking about ingesting food - Twizzlers? What the heck are Twizzlers? After hearing Caryn speak online, I thought, "What else am I doing that is more than likely not good for me?"

I feel fortunate that Caryn stepped into the world of CWP and I'm thankful that she carries me along on her journey, too: her expertise, her life story, her ambitions, and her dreams are inspiration for my own.

Happy Thursday. It's a day of planning, planning. planning (and I should grade, too).