Season 5 Who Am I? Blog 8: The Spencer Rule

 The Spencer Rule

A few weeks ago, I went to Cincinnati to visit Marshall and Aspen. We had a lot of fun, but that is not the point of this installment. When we first met Marshall, he was living with his two childhood best friends, Ricky and Kevin. These two are Marshall’s “brothers'' in the same way that the Andersons are my “sisters.” The difference is Ricky, Marshall, and Kevin have grown apart. Despite this, they still keep in contact. In fact, Ricky and Marshall hiked the Smoky Mountains, right before the 2020 quarantine, and they worked at the same place in Colorado, removing contaminants from N95 respirators (Marshall vs Covid-19).

While Marshall is relatively new to the group, he is very aware of the crazy things that my “sisters” and I did before he arrived. When I was in Cincinnati, Marshall and I got into a deep conversation as we often do. We were talking about past friendships and why you should maintain them. To prove his point, Marshall brought up one of my “sister’s” exes, whose name also happens to be Ricky.

“Think about it Mitchell,” he said, “while they broke up in high school and you have all moved on, ex-Ricky is still seen as the jerk that he was then cuz that’s how you knew him. You should let people from your past know who you are now.”

This led me to think about our former friend, Spencer. I met Spencer in the Spring of 2014 and he, my “sisters” and I hung out sporadically from then until the spring of 2018. At that point, we had a falling out and I hadn’t talked to him in four years. As a result of my conversation with Marshall, when I returned to Columbus, I reached out to Spencer.

We decided to get coffee and go to a park that we had been to a couple of times in our teen years. We hung out for about three hours and caught up on each other's lives. I even went into his house, which in the time that I've known him I have never done before.

My goal for this season is to get a better understanding of who I am, or at the very least, figure out who I want to be. The reason I reached out to Spencer after my conversation with Marshall was I realized I'm done with letting friendships go because of drama that happened in the past. After hanging out with Spencer I devised The Spencer Rule. It states: No matter how a friendship ends (with some exceptions) it can always be recovered.

Have a Greattastic day and be safe

J. Mitchie Ulibarri

Season 5 Who Am I? Blog 7: Speaking At TGS

 Speaking At TGS

It’s time that I reveal a major life goal. One Sunday after church in 2019, shortly after I started this series, I ran into one of my brother Luke's best friend’s mom… let's call her Dr. Diana Brooks. Dr. Brooks had found Rules for a Greattastic Life and she asked me if I wanted to come to a class she teaches and talk about autism. Sidebar: This led to a mentor-mentee relationship between Dr. Brooks and I.

Around the same time, I was talking to my grandma (whom I call Nimba) about how to get more publicity for Rules for a Greattastic Life. Eventually, Dr. Brook’s class came up and this led to a discussion about me maybe doing public speaking. I ended up reaching out to my former teacher Kathy about talking at my former school. She said yes, I spoke there, and that led to me getting my current job at my old school.

Speaking in Dr. Brook’s class and at New Story gave me an idea. Use the blog/podcast and any books I write to jump-start a public speaking career. My reasoning for this is simple: I love teaching and writing, but I don't want to burn myself out. While writing gives my storytelling some (at times much-needed) structure, in real life I can talk and tell stories for hours on end. I'm not going to get tired of talking and public speakers (can) make a lot of money. If I start a successful public speaking career, teaching becomes something I do for no reason other than I love it, and writing becomes a hobby that people tend to enjoy with the bonus of some passive income.

Now as I’ve mentioned a lot recently I went to The Graham School (TGS) for high school. TGS has an internship program, and while it's been dialed back to just the seniors, when I was there it ran in all grades. The teachers were always looking for new internship sites and I told them about Dad’s art studio, Kobolt. Every year since I was a freshman TGS has sent a senior to work at Kobolt (Covid permitting). In fact, the 2019 senior, Maverick, designed the Rules for a Greattastic Life Logo.

One of the senior “advisors” Ruth, retired with my graduating class, but she returned to TGS at the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year. Because of Covid, I was not aware that she had come back until she came to check out Kobolt with this year's senior. Because I want to do public speaking, I asked Mom for Ruth's email and reached out about speaking at TGS.

 On the day that I spoke, one of the other senior advisors, Ken, was waiting at the front desk for me. We walked back into the biggest room in the school, aptly named “The Big Room” where all the seniors were waiting. I said hello to Ruth, and my biology teacher Jennifer, and then I did my presentation. I had a lot of fun and it was good practice for when I start professionally speaking seriously. On top of that, Ruth asked me to come back next year and talk to some of the neurodivergent kids which I'm super excited about!

Have a Greattastic day and be safe!

J. Mitchie Ulibarri

Season 5 Who Am I? Blog 6: Night Ride

 Night Ride

The other night I got ready for bed, said good night to Shane, and got into bed. As I began to doze off, I suddenly realized that I had not ridden my bike since I got my driver's license in the fall of 2020 (Play Another Song). Fueled by impulse, I got out of bed, got dressed, and snuck out into my car.

I drove to Meadow Park Drive and parked across the street from my parent's house. I walked down the driveway and unlocked the shed. Sitting in the middle of the shed, waiting to be ridden was my bike. I hopped on and started my journey.

I went up Meadow Park Drive, past the local high school and the duck pond, and got on the bike trail. As the cool air flowed over me I thought back to before I could drive. I would ride my bike to work, school, and really anywhere else. It was my main mode of transportation and I had forgotten how much I missed it.

I made it downtown and I rode past the Nationwide building. Out of nowhere a car hopped the curb and hit me. I flew through the air, hit the ground, and woke up with a start! Despite the dramatic ending to the dream I haven’t been able to stop thinking about riding my bike and I can’t wait to do it this summer!

Have a Greattastic day and be safe! 

J. Mitchie Ulibarri