journey of life

“It’s not about how to achieve your dreams; it’s about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the dreams will come to you.”

- Randy Pausch (1960-2008)

Lindsey Schafer Pankey
(May 6, 1982 - June 1, 2008)

Lindsay Schafer Pankey, 26, and her infant daughter, Tyler Grace Pankey, passed away June 1, 2008 in Cocoa, Fl. Lindsay, who was born in Suffolk, was a 2000 graduate of Southampton Academy, a 2004 graduate of Radford University, and earned her Master’s Degree in Speech Pathology and Communications Disorders from Old Dominion University. She was a member of Grace Memorial United Methodist Church. Left to cherish their memory is her husband, Jonathan Bartlett Pankey; her parents, Chris and Rita Winstead Schafer of Courtland; her sisters, Katie Schafer of Blacksburg, and Anna Schafer of Harrisonburg; father and mother-in-law, Walt and Gail Pankey of Bedford; and two sisters-in-law, Angela Davis and husband, Bev, and Melissa Campbell and husband, Kevin, and her beloved nieces and nephews, Avery and B Davis, and Kennedy, Spencer, and Pierce Campbell. Cherished not only by her friends and family, Lindsay was devoted to her career as a Speech Therapist and loved by her patients. Always an outspoken member of the family, Lindsay could light up a room by simply walking in the door. Treasured by the youngest children and revered by the most senior, she had no strangers in her life and enriched all whom she touched. A funeral service will be conducted Friday at 11am at Grace Memorial United Methodist Church, Sedley, with the Rev. Mary Marshall and the Rev. Elizabeth von Trapp Walker officiating. Interment will follow in Rosemont Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 7 to 8:30 pm Thursday at Wright Funeral Home, Franklin, and suggests memorials be made to the American Juvenile Arthritis Organization, 1330 West Peachtree Street, Suite 100, Atlanta, Ga. 30309, or Operation Smile, 6435 Tidewater Drive, Norfolk, VA 23509.

I just got an email from my matron-of-honor, Melissa:

I’m sorry for the mass email, but I needed a quick way to find you all. My Sister-In-Law, Lindsay, passed away suddenly yesterday morning. She was 6 months pregnant and the doctors tried to save the baby, but were unsuccessful. She had a blood clot and there was nothing the doctors could do. She died instantly and painlessly. My brother, Jonathan, had his daughter baptized and named, Tyler Grace, and he got to hold Tyler with Lindsay in the room and experience being a family. Please keep my brother in you prayers. He needs them so much.

Many of you know how much Melissa and her family mean to me. Please keep Jonathan and Lindsay’s family in your thoughts and prayers.

On Monday, a friend of ours, Richard John, lost his life to pancreatic cancer.

Richard was a fanatical BMW enthusiast, active member of the Tarheel Chapter of BMW CCA and phenomenal track instructor, not to mention a great person.  This is how I want to remember Richard. Driving his car off into the sunset on the Blue Ridge Parkway…  Although he is no longer with us, his spirit will live on at VIR.  Goodbye, Richard.

Throughout my elementary years, I loved my English and Language Arts classes. Although I lacked the imagination and the composition skills, I enjoyed writing. That is, until I had Mrs. Carrico as my ninth grade English teacher, then AGAIN as my college English teacher my senior year. The woman was senile, judgmental and played favorites. No joke. My senior year, two students switched papers, only to receive the same grade they were always awarded.

I began my college career deflated by my experience in Mrs. Carrico’s class and was shocked to find I didn’t do so bad when it came to paper writing, as long as I wasn’t procrastinating. Consequently, several of my other high school classmates who had Mrs. Carrico as well went through similar revelations. Our writing skills weren’t lacking. We weren’t the best, but clearly we weren’t the worst. Mrs. Carrico was just an old bitty. Thinking back, I may have chosen a different curriculum in college, one more suited to my interests and talents, but because I truly believed my writing skills were atrocious, I meandered all over the major map before settling on History.

Once I began blogging, I really enjoyed writing…again. I never was much of a diary/journal writer, but for some reason blogging appealed to me. I began to write on topics I was interested in, without worrying about my usage of perfect past tense or obsessive comma usage. Now, with several years of blogging under my belt, I know full well that my greater audience is rather small, which is completely fine with me. I also am aware that I will not win awards or become rich off my writing skills. I’m okay with that, too. Those accolades go to the lucky ones who possess superior blogging skills. You know, the ones that would have gotten an A+ in Mrs. Carrico’s class.

However, for some reason, my post on cruising apparently became popular in Internet land. So much so, that other sites are actually copying my content to use as their own. Unfortunately, I can’t credit this to my writing skills. Instead, key words that I used probably caught their eye, such as “Royal Caribbean”, “Carnival” and “cruise”. These sites gain revenue by the amount of hits they get, and apparently those key words get lots of attention. Because the authors of such sites flunked out of English completely, they rely on others to provide content to their website, which they obtain without permission. Yes, this is illegal. Yes, I can hire a lawyer to draft a letter to the service providers and demand that my copyrighted content be removed. But, it is highly unlikely that the spammers will be punished. Personally, I don’t want to waste my time and energy on a losing battle. After some research and consulting with my counsel I have instead decided to plaster copyrighted symbols and statements throughout the site an on my rss feeds.

So, as my popularity grows, but before I become world-renowned, I must give credit where credit is due. I would like to thank Mrs. Carrico for convincing me that my writing sucked. Otherwise, I might have never enjoyed blogging so much.

Last week CNN posted the following: Dad: Virginia Tech treated suicidal son like ‘joke’While the story is newsworthy, I believe it was in poor taste for CNN to post the article LAST WEEK.  I responded with the following comment, but haven’t heard anything back (nor did my post make it on their comment section).

I am outraged this was published, on the day before the year anniversary of the shootings at Virginia Tech, where thirty-three people lost their lives, including the shooter.  How crass of CNN to scrutinize Virginia Tech at a time their students, faculty, staff and alumni are focused on healing from such a horrible incident.  It was inappropriate timing on CNN’s part and I believe the editors should have been more respectful to the many people affected by the shootings of April 16, 2007. 

I love hanging out with smart people who really make me think about myself and the world around me. Yes, dumb people can do this as well, but I’d defer to having smart friends over dumb friends. Which is why I would love to attend TED. Granted, some concepts (maybe many concepts), ideas and discussions would be completely over my head and you would find me snoring in the back of the conference room. However, there are other speakers who inspire, delight, entertain and, of course, make you think. I have to say that Sir Ken Robinson is the favorite speaker I have watched from the collection of TED videos posted online. I don’t think I would miss an opportunity to see him speak in person if he came to town. As far as my possibilities of attending a conference…they are pretty slim. You must become a member first, which the standard level costs $6K, and at this point there’s a waiting list for the 2009 conference. For now, I’m content watching the videos online.

Late last year I discovered dooce.com (how I had not heard of her sooner still amazes me),  authored by Heather B. Armstrong, which has quickly become my favorite blog in the whole wide world, with the exception of those of you that I personally know and have met and read your blogs religiously, of course.  Heather is a veteran blogger, who is hilarious and real.  You can read all about her previous lives here, but in her current life she lives in Salt Lake City, UT and is a blogging goddess with several of us who worship the ground she walks on.  Who else walks away with four Bloggies in one year?  If you haven’t gone to dooce.com, you don’t know what you are missing.  But, for those sensitive souls out there, I will warn you.  She doesn’t pussyfoot around and she might offend you.  However, reading her blog beats prime-time television any day of the week.  It’s that funny.Update : There’s a new Wall Street Journal article about Dooce, along with their top ten motherhood blogs.