01.13 : YOU are YOUR best teacher

Good evening my loves...

I am sitting at Studio JRy reflecting on the evening.  I just returned home from the SCEA Harvest Banquet.  I am so pumped up and so proud to have went.  Tonight, two humanitarians  were honored with "Pride of Pueblo" Awards for their contribution toward bringing awareness to the LGBT community and their rights.  As an equality alliance, I am proud of them and their efforts.  I am also very proud of who I am as a person and a friend to the LGBT community.  

For me, tonight means so much.  The fact that in 110,000 population Pueblo has a banquet for their gay community means the world to me.  For me to live in a rather conservative state from conservative parents and see an event that personifies the gay community the way I know it makes me proud.  Not everything is stereotypical or made-for-tv.  Not all gay people are flamers or masculine-looking lesbians.  Not all gay supporters are gay.  Not all politicians care if they are gay-friendly.  To all these people, gay is the furthest from the brain... it's ONE part of who we are.  To have straight allies makes us stronger and to make it a time of celebration and seeing us as humans and not as "gay people" warms my heart.

Tonight, my best friend and I attended and as I sat there and we ate, listened to the key-note speaker and watched the awards ceremony, I was so proud to call him "friend".  He is my favorite person.  It is well-known.  I do not have to "train" him to be a civilized classy man.  We both want the same rights as any other partnership and to know I have his back and he has mine is comforting.  Alot of people will never understand the bond I have because they haven't had to live life as a Mediterranean gay man.  They never had the lives we had growing up.  They didn't take hours out of their day to break bread and council each other like we do.  For that, I love him most.  And as his friend, I want only the best for him.

Tonight, was also the night of my 100th video blog on the ShakeYourCooley channel (visit http://www.youtube.com/shakeyourcooley) - after 100 video blogs, all I hope people understand when viewing them is that I am on an adventure called life and my mission to learn more about me, share it with the world and hopefully help someone reach their true identity and love their authentic self. 

The point of THIS very blog has been the same thing . I don't think people really care what I'm drinking, who I hang out with or what happened me.  They like the stories.  They like the autobiography of my writing.  I am, obviously, not ashamed of who I am or what I've learned or how I learned.  I want my journey to be a "wake up call" to some and comforting and eye-opening to others.  For the haters that read just cos they want to dog me, let them have that!  They're cowards and fakes.  You know how I feel about those assholes...

My life lately has been about taking care of me.  Tonight, we left before 10pm.  In the day, I would have hooped-and-hollared it up with everyone and had an afterparty.  I can honestly say... those days are pretty much done.  I like to hoop and hollar on my own time.. not in public. (There goes the Garbo-talk again)

My livelihood and taking care of me starts here: in my thoughts.  My thoughts translate into writing. My writing is inspired by me.  That's not ego, that's self-examination.  For me, I AM my best teacher.

I hope that I can grow and move on to become a teacher to many.  As 2013 approaches, the internship program at my salon is growing, my interns are graduating to other salons and Joico comes calling in January.  That means lots of traveling.

The other day I tweeted that I would take my best friend or my mom with me.  I wasn't kidding.  I have two loves of my life:

-my career and every facet of it 

-my love of sharing with my family and friends.

Through this platform called the internet, blogging, tweeting, Facebook, etc... I hope to share the most concise, true, intimate piece of my knowledge I can with each of you.  I want you to be your authentic self.  I want YOU to be the best you and I want you to be happy and content in your own skin when you lay your head down at night.... just as I am.

Sometimes my mouth and it's words are raw and the knowledge I share is naked and unfiltered, but ultimately, I am a teacher at heart.  I want the best for you and I will share what I can in the hope that you understand that YOU are YOUR best teacher. 

Warmly,

Josh

Visit josh-cooley.com 

Visit my lifestyle blog http://rockstarslums.blogspot.com

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