After a Horrible Saturday, A Kick Off To The Week: Joy, Happiness, Sunshine, Laughter, Humor, Energy, & Spunk

In 2007, when I left Kentucky, I graduated with one of the best classes I was fortunate to work with at the J. Graham Brown School. That year, Emily Newton spent her time researching whether or not laughter really was the best medicine and she helped me with Improv 4 Quarterbacks, 4th grade daily jokes, and a juggling club. She didn't do the traditional route after high school and, instead, she traveled to the west coast to enroll in a professional theater, puppet and clown school. They trained her well and she traveled for several years with them until she landed in West Virginia.

Recently, however, through a series of medical challenges (which she's overcome and tackled with her smile and spirit) she's a neurobiology major at Berea College in Kentucky. Her goal is to become a physical therapist - an occupation that balances mind, muscle, bone and vision! This month, though, she's doing a study with Pilobolus dance company in Bethlehem, Connecticut. She's one of 15 students who will spend 3 weeks training with the modern dance troupe and where she can research more of her theories about dance, movement, and healing.

Although we only got to spend one day together, I took it as an omen to keep my spirits up after a horrible weekend sick in bed. I will always remember those gray days in Kentucky when Emily always arrived with her funky gait and whimsical personality --- she lifted me up every time. And now she's in Connecticut learning from incredible dancers and I had the great fortune of seeing her. Lucky me (and I wish her luck in her three-week adventure, especially after all the challenges her 20s have thrown her way)