i am not quite sure if it was the powerful impact of the titantic exhibition or finally hanging out with my best buddy but i was overcome with raw emotion today.

best buddies.

a cause that has been close to my heart since i was 20.  th experience – and my friendship – with my buddy in university matured me through my formative years and beyond.  it inspired me to want to spend the rest of my life helping people, embracing people for who they truly are.  it also drew me to a profession in the charitable sector, ensuring that programs like best buddies exist for people like my buddy.  i would definitely be a different person today if it wasn’t for her – i would be incomplete.

and now, while down under, i have met my new buddy – a gorgeous individual who is so excited about friendship.  i have only met her three times but i already know that she is going to have a profound impact on me, propelling me into the next phase of my character development.

true, we are always changing, growing.  but it is an experience like a best buddy that has made me more self-aware, fulfilled and appreciate the genuine meaning of what it means to have a friend – and to be a friend to someone else.

titantic.

i think its important the world still realizes and recognizes this historical 100-year-old tragedy.  an elegantly and respectfully assembled exhibit, titantic takes the visitor through a tour of the ship’s significant features, displays artifacts that have been rescued from the ocean floor and commemorates the lives of those lost at sea.  but it also creatively celebrates the embodiment of the human spirit, the worldwide awe and hope that the ship spared in the heart of its passengers, some who were simply vacationing, others using it to distinguish their social status and most looking for a new beginning in a new world.

i knew about th titantic before visiting the museum but now i have a great appreciation for th rms titanic team that is trying to preserve this magnificent piece of physical and emotional history.  it was heartbreaking to read that in the next 40 to 90 years the ship will collapse in on itself, leaving the ocean floor in dust.

physical history cannot live forever but stories and legacies can.  and that is a beautiful thing about a museum – a home for these ancient wonders that existed before our time but important to discover – and uncover – to understand moments that occurred, events that shaped what we are now.

and to me the titantic does that – it is a symbol of the human spirit.  human resiliency and proof that event the largest most technologically engineered sound structures can fall.  but more importantly, the will of the world can also be restored after incurring such tragic tragedy.