Season 6: Thanksgiving Special: Here’s To The Next 5 Years

 Here’s To The Next 5 Years

The day before Thanksgiving, November 22nd, my Aunt Eva, Grandpa (Pop-pop), his friend Sara, my brothers Ryan, Luke, and Josh, Mom, Dad, and I, had lunch at the North Market in downtown Columbus. Once we had finished eating, I pulled my phone out and I had a Facebook notification. It was a Facebook memory from Thanksgiving five years ago. My Aunt Cyndi had posted three photos from our Thanksgiving party that year.

The first picture was of my brothers, me, my cousins, Alex, Maci, Nicholas, Ellie, and Cyndi's son Cameron, eating Thanksgiving dinner. The second was of Ryan, Josh, Cameron, and me. The third picture was a group shot of everyone who had come. In addition to those who were already mentioned, Mom, Dad, Pop-pop, Eva, my Mom's mom (Nimba), her husband (Papa) and his mom, Aunt  Melissa and Uncle Andy, and Cyndi's daughter Caitlynn were in the picture.

The fact that these pictures were from five years ago was very significant. At that time, I was writing a book about my life called Rules for a Greattastic Life. It was basically a diary written in chapter form. I was struggling to write it because I didn't know what parts would be important for the climax and resolution. My “sister,” August, had recently started a blog called Wild Aster. Inspired by her, I deleted the manuscript of the book and started writing The Greattastic Adventures series about my childhood. In January 2019, I started Rules for a Greattastic Life as a blog!

While I briefly referenced Wild Aster in my first blog, I didn't mention what happened to it in real-time. In the summer of 2019, August worked at a summer camp and didn't have internet access, so Wild Aster died. After that happened, I was a little paranoid that this series would have the same fate, but obviously, it hasn't. In fact, I would not be where I am today if it were not for this blog/podcast!

Firstly, this series led me to do public speaking at my old school, Haugland. That led me to get a job working with kids on the spectrum, both with that company and the company that bought them out, New Story. Secondly, I started public speaking in her class once my family friend, Dr. Brooks, discovered this series. This led me to speak at OCALICONLINE twice, join the Council for Exceptional Children of Ohio’s board, and be a keynote speaker. I have big plans for my advocacy career that I will be announcing soon!

As I looked at those three pictures, I thought about my life over the course of these last five years. Not just the professional part of it but also all of the amazing times I have had in the past five years! I am so thankful for all of the people who have allowed me to spread my message, and I am also thankful for all the people who have helped me live a… well, Greattastic life!

Season 6 Whats The Dream? Blog 28: OCALICONLINE 2023- How Far I've Come

 OCALICONLINE 2023- How Far I've Come

As you may recall, last year I spoke at OCALICONLINE. It was a goal that I had been trying to reach since I started public speaking with Dr. Brooks in 2019. This led to me being a keynote speaker this past June (Keynote). While I was selling books at the Keynote conference, I met a woman named Jo Hannah. Jo Hannah is the Director of the Office for Exceptional Children at the Ohio Department of Education, and it just so happens that she went to high school with my mom. Jo Hannah introduced me to her coworker, Joe… I know it's confusing… and they had a proposition for me.

“So for OCALICONLINE, we always have a leaders session,” Joe explained.

“We have someone come in and talk to everybody about their experiences, and we think it would be cool if you and your parents spoke at it this year,” Jo Hannah continued. “What do you think?”

I'm not going to lie to you. I was a little bit hesitant. I did public speaking online through the pandemic, but it wasn't my best work. I kind of need my entire body to convey my message when I'm public speaking. On top of that, the name of the installment that I wrote about speaking at OCALICONLINE 2022 was called “OCALICONLINE- Only One Place I Can Go.” That title is indicative of my thought process. After speaking at OCALICONLINE, the only place I could go was up. I thought doing it again might be a bit of a step back. I thought that it would be more or less the same people coming to hear me speak, and by extension, I would not be helping anyone new. But Jo Hannah and Joe are the most influential people that actually know my name. At the very least, from a networking standpoint, it was only logical for me to say yes.

On August 21st, I had an online meeting with Jo Hannah, Joe, and their other coworker, Monica. Just for a little context, the presentation that I always give is about my education as a kid and then my adult life as someone who works with autistic kids. The plan was for me to change the presentation a little bit. I would insert places for my parents to add their input during my education portion, and Joe wanted me to summarize my adult life, not just the working with autistic kids part. It's lucky that I have a blog and podcast that completely depicts my adult life; I just made a slide to summarize each season.

Last Tuesday, November 14th, I got up early, looked over my presentation one more time, got ready for the day, and drove to Dad's studio, Kobolt. I got to the studio at 9:00 a.m., which was right when we were supposed to be logging on. Mom and Dad were on a laptop in Mom's office, and I set up in the conference room upstairs. Jo Hannah, Joe, my parents, and I ran through all the technical stuff with the audio-visual specialist, and then, at 9:30, people entered the meeting.

The session started with Joe and Jo Hannah giving updates about great things happening in education in Ohio, and once they finished, they introduced Mom, Dad, and me. I'm not going to go over my entire presentation because that would take too long. I will say it was really fun for me to do public speaking with my parents and get their perspective on my childhood. Also, I was sharing my screen, so I couldn't see the Zoom screen, but Mom said that there were 329 people in attendance, and most of them were administrators and principals! After finishing the presentation, we were sent into breakout rooms to discuss and answer questions!

I don't want to undercut my initial OCALICONLINE conference; I would not be where I am today if it were not for that conference. Despite that and my initial hesitancy, OCALICONLINE 2023 was absolutely the superior conference. The first reason is my session during the 2022 conference was a pre-recorded session, and this one was live, which made me feel more involved.

The second reason is more people came! I forget how many people came last year, but I'm pretty sure we didn't break 50. I get that most of that is because of my connection to Jo Hannah and Joe, but whether we're talking about OCALICONLINE or any other public speaking gig, this is the biggest crowd I've ever spoken to! I feel good about how far I’ve come, especially in the last year, and I’m very grateful to all who have shown an interest in my work.

Have a Greattastic day and be safe!

J. Mitchie Ulibarri

Season 6 Whats The Dream? Blog 27: Runs In The Family

 Runs In The Family

I can't believe I'm writing this. I can't believe this happened. I mean, I’m not upset about it. I've secretly wanted this ever since Box Seats played their first show in October of 2021 (Here We Go Again). The only reason I haven't said it out loud is because it seemed so outlandish up until last month. I bet you're all wondering what I'm talking about. Well, as you probably know, Ryan is the lead guitarist in Cousin Simple, Josh is the drummer in Box Seats, and Luke plays in both bands. He's the frontman in Box Seats and the rhythm guitarist in Cousin Simple. As of last Thursday, November 2nd, Cousin Simple and Box Seats have officially played a show together! Before I continue, I also have to explain that the drummer in Cousin Simple, Dave, is also in a band called Magnolia, and they also played.

I picked Noah up at 6:30, and we drove to Natalie’s in Grandview, Ohio. Half of Natalie’s is a restaurant/bar, and the other half is a music venue. When Noah and I arrived at 6:45, we went to the restaurant/bar area and said hi to my family and the families of the other band members. Paige and her parents arrived around 7:20, and at 7:30, everyone moved to the music venue half.

Box Seats opened the show. It was really surreal to see them on such an actual stage. I'm not saying they haven’t done it before, but this was the biggest show that Box Seats has played so far, and it’s the first that I actually think of as a stage, just because I’ve been to so many Cousin Simple shows. Magnolia played next. I had never heard of them before. I will say that I know another person in the band. The lead singer is a guy named Joey, who I've known through Dad for years, and he, Dave, and the rest of the band put on a really good show.

Then Cousin Simple took the stage, and it was amazing! The show started with a bang, as expected. However, Cousin Simple pulled out all the stops. Three main things stood out to me. Firstly, they played a ton of new songs. Before playing one of the songs, Will announced that the specific song was going to be on their new EP in January! They have not released a “collection” of songs since their first album, And We Would Never End, in 2017.

The second thing needs a little bit of an explanation. In 2018, a local university newspaper called The Lantern published an article about Cousin Simple. Along with that article, they released a video. It's still on YouTube. It's called Columbus' Own: Cousin Simple Band. Early in the video, the band performs an acoustic version of one of their songs, Strangers. That song is from their aforementioned previous album, and it is one of my favorite songs on that album. I have always believed that this acoustic version, however, was slightly superior. Don't ask me why; I’ve just always loved it a little more. They had never performed that version live.

In the middle of the show, Will grabbed an acoustic guitar. The remainder of the band stayed on their electric instruments, but I recognized the slower intro of it immediately. I was in a state of euphoria as they finally played an “acoustic Strangers” live! Finally, on another one of their new songs, they brought out a freaking saxophone player! I don't think anyone was emotionally prepared for that; I know I wasn't!

I know that this installment mostly focuses on Cousin Simple, but that is mostly because they were the headliners. The entire night, people were coming up to me, telling me how good my brothers played. This isn't anything new. It happens at every single Cousin Simple and Box Seats. But I was happy because this was the first time “Your brothers played so well” referred to all three of them!

 “Well, it runs in the family!” I responded whenever someone praised them.

Have a Greattastic day, and be safe,

J. Mitchie Ulibarri

Before I end this installment, I would like to congratulate my “sister,” August, and her new husband, Daniel, on the birth of their daughter! I can’t wait to meet her!

Season 6 Whats The Dream? Blog 26: Bloom

 Bloom

As many of you know, my childhood best friend was a girl named Samantha McCarthy (S.M.). S.M. passed away on October 15, 2009, and I miss her every day. In her honor, her mom, Nikki, started Sam's Fans to support music and art therapy in Ohio hospitals. Every year, they have a fashion show called Thread of Hope (TOH).

Each year, TOH has a theme. The first TOH after Covid was branded as “The Rainbow After The Storm,” last year's was “Be Bold,” and this year's was “Bloom.” The Exchange at Bridge Park, where TOH is always held, was decorated with flowers as far as the eye could see. In Nikki's own words, “In the past year, we (Sam's Fans) have seen tremendous growth as a team, and it's all thanks to your invaluable support.” She went on to compare Sam's Fans to a garden, hence the theme. This theme is very timely to me as I am planning on planting my own seed… But we'll get to that in a second.

When I walked in, I talked to Nikki's best friend, Mandy, Allie, who is a friend of Mandy and Nikki and a member of the Sam's Fans board, Allie's husband Joe, Nikki's husband Dan, two of their kids, Finn and Jack, a few more members of their extended family, the social media director Averi, and S.M.’s best friend Kyra.

It was an amazing night. After Nikki and Miranda, the owner of Thread, started the night, the MC for the night started the auction. I'm always surprised at how fast auctioneers talk in real life. I know I’ve written that before, but it surprises me every year! Anyway, I forget the exact fundraising goal, but it was like $34,000-ish. They made over $100,000, though!

Directly after that, a video about the impact of Sam’s Fans was played. This video starred a girl named Alea Ramsey. Alia battled (and beat) cancer 8 times throughout her childhood. She got music therapy through Sam’s Fans, and she has a nonprofit called Bearing Hope. She also released a book called When Life Gives You Cancer! In the video, Nikki described the similarities between Alea and S.M., and there was not a dry eye in the room.

After that, the fashion show began, and as it was wrapping up, I searched for Mandy. She was talking to a group of people, and her mom was standing next to her. When her mom saw me clearly waiting, she directed Mandy to me.

“Hey,” I said, “I know this is not a good time, but I’m gonna send you a text tomorrow… I need to take you out to dinner. We have some things to discuss.”

“Ummm,” she started, “is everything Okay?”

“Oh yes!” I said quickly. “Sorry, didn’t mean to worry you. Everything’s fine, but you know me, I'm a planner, and I’m very dramatic!”

She laughed, remembering when I had secretly interviewed her a couple years ago when I was writing Once In A Lifetime: A Song For Sam. “Well,” Mandy said, smiling, “ I’m looking forward to your text!”

Have a Greattastic day, and be safe

J. Mitchie Ulibarri

Season 6 Whats The Dream? Blog 25: Steven Sanchez

 Steven Sanchez

Steven Sanchez is a relatively new musician. I started hearing about him through my “sisters.” The day after Cyndi and Jeremy's wedding, October 1st, Arden and I had a phone call. She told me that she, Marshall, and Kid were going to see Steven Sanchez when he came to Columbus on October 14th. I asked Paige if she wanted to go, and she said yes; then, I promptly asked Arden to send me some of his albums.

Now, there is this other artist that has been around for a while named Jake Scott. The girls discovered him through their Canadian friends, and literally, up until last week, I didn't know that I knew anyone else who liked him. Like, I knew he was famous, but he wasn't… Taylor Swift. I’m aware that's an unfair comparison, but you get my point. Because I had never heard of Steven, in the same way I hadn't heard of Jake, I figured the former was also kind of a niche artist. I didn't realize that everyone knows at least one of his songs. It’s called Until I Found You.

On October 13th, I finally got around to listening to the albums. I was listening to them as I drove from New Story to Columbus State to pick Paige up. By the time I had picked her up and we were getting on the highway Until I Found You came on. I didn't recognize it until the chorus, and I was confused at first because I thought it was playing in my head. “Wait, this is him!” I screamed when I registered what was happening.

“Yes!” Paige laughed at my ignorance.

The next day, we went to my “sisters’” parents’ house for dinner and cake to celebrate… something that I’m not going to talk about right now, but I will definitely come back to eventually. After we had finished, we got into Marshall's car and drove to Kemba Live. Just for continuity purposes, Kemba Live is where Cousin Simple played Jingle Jam with AJR and Spencer Sutherland.

We got there about an hour and a half after the doors opened, and we missed most of the opener. When the opener had finished, the crowd dispersed a little bit, and we managed to find spots. About 30 minutes later, all the lights went off, and Steven Sanchez got on stage. He was a really good performer. The concept of the show was that he died in the 50s, and he and his band were performing to tell the story of how he died. As a storyteller, I enjoyed it; his music was great too!

Have a Greattastic day, and be safe,

J. Mitchie Ulibarri

Season 6 Whats The Dream? Blog 24: The Wedding Of Cyndi And Jeremy

 The Wedding Of Cyndi And Jeremy

My Aunt Cyndi and her longtime boyfriend, Jeremy, have been engaged for the last two years. They didn't want to think about the wedding right away because, at the time of their engagement, they were in the middle of building a house, but that ended up taking a lot longer than they had expected. When the house was finally finished last winter, they scheduled the wedding for September 30, 2023.

My family, Paige, and I got to the house at 5:45 p.m. Everybody else went and greeted my extended family while I snuck into the house. Uncle Bob, who was officiating, and Jeremy were standing in the kitchen. “You ready,” Uncle Bob asked when he saw me.

“Yep,” I said, “I just want to practice one more time… And maybe go to the bathroom.”

15 minutes later, I was waiting at the side of the house while Cyndi, Jeremy, my cousins Caitlynn and Cameron, and Bob processed onto the patio. Bob welcomed everybody and then introduced me. With the mic in one hand and my phone with my speech pulled up in the other, I walked onto the patio.

I'm not going to repeat my entire speech here because it in and of itself is the standard length of one of these installments, but I'll go over the basics. I started by saying that I have never thought of Cyndi as my aunt… she is more of a friend that I'm related to. I talked about how I didn't understand that adults were “just normal humans” until I saw Cyndi go through some horrible things with her ex-husband, though obviously I didn't word it exactly like that. Then I mentioned how I met Jeremy and that, having seen everything they've been through, I know that they are soulmates. After I finished, I took my seat, the ceremony continued, and eventually, Bob pronounced them husband and wife!

We took pictures, had dinner, I introduced Paige to my Aunt Shana, and then Cyndi and Jeremy cut the cake. From here, the night really got going. My immediate family, Paige, the Mitreys (Aunt Melissa, Uncle Andy, their kids, Alex, Maci, Nicholas, and Alex's girlfriend Emma), along with the rest of my extended family and all the other guests, danced the night away. A few times, Cameron was allowed to perform, which was really fun to watch, even though I think it's proof that we may have let him go to a few too many Cousin Simple shows in his early years!

I have written about a lot of weddings in this series, and this will not be the last one that I write about. But I will say this is definitely one of the most interesting weddings I've been to. I think it might be because I wasn't expecting it. I mean, yes, they've been engaged for two years, and even before that, I knew it would happen… but I wasn't ready for what it was going to be like.

Cyndi is someone that I have known my entire life. We have each seen the other go through the best times and the worst. Getting chosen out of everyone in my family to speak at her wedding was an honor that I can't even begin to describe.

Congratulations, Cyndi and Jeremy! Wishing you a Greattastic Life! 

With love, J. Mitchie Ulibarri

Season 6 Whats The Dream? Blog 23: A Writer's Place

 A Writer's Place

Crimson Cup is a coffee shop in Clintonville that has popped up sporadically in this series. Its first appearance was in Season 1, and it was the setting and the namesake of the Season 2 installment, “Coffeeshop Surprise.” One of its most recent appearances was last season when I spoke at the visual conference, OCALICONLINE from the location.

As a refresher, last year, OCALICONLINE was held from November 15th-18th, and I had taken off work for each day of the conference so that I could enjoy it in its entirety. All of this to say, I spent that entire week at Crimson Cup. On the first day of the conference, I got to the coffee shop 15 minutes early to get my drink and set everything up. I immediately recognized the cashier when I walked in.

“Hi Lydia,” I said to her when I saw her.

“Hey Mitch,” she replied, “what have you been up to?”

Lydia and I went to high school together, but she was a grade below me. I told her about OCALICONLINE, she asked how I got that gig, and I explained this series and that I had published one book and was working on publishing my second. She said she wanted a copy of The Greattastic Adventures: Miracle Child, and after, I told her that I would get her one.

Now as I explained when I announced my second book, my plan is to have four books in the Greattastic Adventures series. Since those books are about my childhood, I wanted to get them done before I turned 30. As a result, I was always working on two books. When The Greattastic Adventures: Miracle Child was my main project, Once In A Lifetime: A Song For Sam was on the back burner. When Once In A Lifetime was my main project, Greattastic Adventures 2 took its spot on the back burner.

About a month before OCALICONLINE, I woke up at 8:30 on a Saturday morning in a really good writing mood. Since Once In A Lifetime was in the editing phase, I got on my computer and wrote all day, only taking breaks to eat and go to the bathroom, and I wrote about 75% of Greattastic Adventures 2!

Now Greattastic Adventures 2 and 3 could have been one book, but I didn't want to make it so big and overwhelming, so I split the narrative down the middle. However, I still wanted them to come out during the same year. When I wrote most of book 2, I came up with a new plan.

1. Finish Greattastic Adventures 2 by spring break 2023 (I succeeded).

2. Start writing Greattastic Adventures 3 shortly thereafter, and finish it by the summer of 2024.

3. While working on Greattastic Adventures 3, run Greattastic Adventures 2 through editing and formatting.

4. Once steps two and three are completed, run Greattastic Adventures 3 through editing.

5. Published both books in 2025.

This was all before Paige and I started dating. That's important because while Paige did not hinder these plans, at the beginning of our relationship, I was spending a lot of time with her that I would usually spend writing. As I've explained before, over the summer, I didn't see her for a month because she went on a cousin's trip, and then another family trip, and I went to Colorado. While she was on the cousin's trip, I decided to start writing a little more seriously.

Because doing OCALICONLINE at Crimson Cup had been so successful, I decided to start writing there. On my first day there, I got like seven chapters written, and I realized that writing in a coffee shop is a stereotype for a reason! When school started back up, I would go to Crimson Cup multiple times a week after work, and I am proud to announce that I am ahead of schedule. As of September 14th, 2023, I have finished writing Greattastic  Adventures 3. 

Because editing has not begun yet, I think I am still going to stick to my plan of aiming to publish by 2025. I will let you know if things change, but I wanted to write about this now because I’m really proud of myself! Yes, this is a project I've been working on for 6 years, but the fact that I've written three books within two and a half years of publishing my first, I think, is pretty impressive! Also, I'm planning on taking these two years to write more books so that when I finish The Greattastic Adventures series, I can just start pumping out new books.

Have a Greattastic day, and be safe

J. Mitchie Ulibarri