Miracle on...

Miracle on…

By Drew Bankston

When you’re looking forward to something that’s a month or more away, it’s easy to forget about the event until a week or so before it happens.

Four weeks from tomorrow I leave for New York City to begin my adventure of marching in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. You would think that the reality of this has settled into my brain and that the excitement would have waned somewhat, but let me tell you, that’s not at all the case.

This has been something that I’ve thought about all of my life. From as far back as I can remember I’ve watched the parade every Thanksgiving. It’s not just a tradition, but also a total joy to experience every year. I look forward to it beginning September 1 each year. To know that I’m going to be in it is more exciting than I can express. In addition to being excited about this, the fine folks at Macy’s continue to keep that excitement building by sending us little bits of information each week. This week, however, I received the most amazing news yet. I received our schedule for the week!

At this point, I don’t think that I can share every detail of the week, but I can say that at some particular point in time, I will get to visit the place that one of my favorite Christmas movies revolve around, “Miracle on 34^th Street”. Yes, I get to visit Macy’s, Herald Square.

Now, some of you might wonder how I can be so excited about visiting Macy’s in New York. Yes, it’s true that I work at Macy’s but for some reason this store, which is one of the largest retail stores in the world, is magical. I will have to opportunity to be a part of that magic. Not only that but once upon a time, Macy’s actually had a choir. They recorded an album. I get to be a part of a group that hasn’t existed for 60 years. So being able to visit the flagship store and actually shop there, see the holiday decorations and see the Magic of Macy’s in person is beyond words. I can’t wait, and yet I have to.

I honestly can’t wait to see what is coming next week and hopefully, I’ll have a little more guidance as to what all I can share with you about my trip. In the meantime know that I’ll be rehearsing, taking lots of photos and a few live broadcasts, and having the time of my life. I want to take each of you along on this journey, so come back next week for more, tell your friends to join you, and let’s have a great time together.

Another Week of...

Another week of…

By Drew Bankston

Continuing on the news from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, I have heard more this week, and with every bit of new news, the forthcoming trip becomes more and more exciting!

I think about this every day and really can’t wait for the day to arrive when I’m ready to board that plane and head out on this adventure. I’ll be posting lots of photos and will do a few live broadcasts while in the Big Apple, so watch for it all to join in the fun

This week they sent out the list of people who would be attending the rehearsals and the parade. This is exciting because it’s becoming more real seeing the names of the one hundred and fifty people from all around the country, who will be singing with me to bring joy and happiness to not only the people in New York watching the parade but those who will be viewing the parade from all around the world!

I’ve always enjoyed the holidays. At home, I bake up a storm, decorate as much as possible, blast holiday music and generally spread the holiday cheer wherever I go. I am a big part of the holidays at home, but this year I feel as if I’ll be even a bigger part of the holidays to many around the world. What an incredible thought! Now, as much as I would love to, don’t expect cookies or holiday cakes and candies from me. I would really love to be in a position to bake those for you, but unless you live close, it’s not going to happen… this year.

I’m working on many projects, one of which at least I hope will give me a little more freedom and a little more money to help me make the holidays wonderful for many more people. I’ll tell you more about that in a future blog. In the meantime, I’m excited to sing for you this Thanksgiving Day and hope that not only will each if you watch but that you’ll spread the word and ask your friends to follow my blog and watch the fun as well.  Check back next week for more information on this fun adventure!

Time Marches...

by Drew Bankston

Time marches and I will be soon! This week has been pretty incredible. We’ve had some warm days near eighty degrees, and today it’s snowing. Life is a constant surprise. I used to think that life was filled with surprises, but then I realized that it’s just one big surprise that keeps getting better each day that I open my eyes and smile.

It’s important that we cherish every wonderful moment that we can. Last week, I told you about an upcoming event that is, for me, a childhood dream come true. Being chosen to be in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is an excitement that I can only compare to going to Disneyland.One piece of advice that the committee has given us is to “Get in your Steps” while stating that each parade participant will be taking around 5,000 steps during the course of the parade. I walk a great deal during each of my days, and so I thought that I was prepared. Lately, I’ve thought more about getting in shape all over and about what I need to do to get there. Now, I’m the kind of person that many people envy. I can eat just about anything and not gain weight. It’s a genetic thing, I think. Because of that, I just assume that I’m always in good shape, but the other night when I decided to begin a workout routine, I received a startling realization. I couldn’t do those 100 push-ups and sit-ups that used to come so easy. It was at that point I decided that I needed to have my expectations of myself come face-to-face with my realities. It was an ego bruiser to realize that I was no longer the fit and trim person I thought myself to be and that I needed to throttle back my work-outs to reflect where I am now. I’m starting slow and working my way back to where I remember being, and what a joy it will be when I get there!

So working toward that 5,000 steps in addition to regaining the core strength that I used to be so proud of is a priority in my life now.

The parade committee sent an Email this week talking to us about the credentials that we’ll need for getting into the parade, which made the excitement of the upcoming event even more real. I am picturing myself as fit and trim for the event, and I know that I’ll reach that goal. At least, I’ll be more fit and trim than I am now and much more pleased with myself, which is the overall goal.We can’t just reminisce about the old days and about how we used to do this and that. That’s not good enough for me. I want to be able to say, “This is what I can do now” and be proud of whatever that is. When I talk about what I used to do, I want that to be a stepping stone to where I am today and not a point of bragging about past glories. Our lives need to progress and get better, no matter what our circumstances. Our current events need to be things that we can talk about while holding our heads high. I’m getting there and I know that you all can as well. Strive to make your life better each day and down the road, you can brag about each day’s accomplishments with pride, and maybe even march in a parade without tiring out!

Marching to the Beat of...

Marching to the Beat of…

By Drew Bankston

As many of you know I have a family. I care for my family by working. I wish that the way I earned all of my money was through book sales, but that’s not happening right now, so instead, I work for Macy’s.  I’m actually glad that I do because an amazing opportunity has presented itself to me and I want to share that with all of you.

A few weeks ago, Macy’s held auditions and I entered. It was pretty fun entering. The audition was for a singing part in the famed Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  Here’s what they are doing.

Macy’s was looking for 150 employees from around the country to participate in a first. They are creating a singing Christmas Tree in the parade. 50 employees are coming from New York and the other 100 are to be employees from outside of New York. So they held singing auditions. If you wanted a shot at it you had to upload a video of yourself, singing one verse of a song from a list that they provided, answer a couple of questions on camera, and wait.

So I thought, “What the heck,” and I did. Much to my amazement and surprise, I was one of two people chosen to go! What a fun surprise that was. First of all, I’ve never really been to New York. Well, I drove through it once, hauling horses from Virginia to Vermont. Didn’t get to see anything except a lot of traffic. Now, however, I get to go to New York and Macy’s is paying my way.

As a child, I watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade every Thanksgiving morning. Even as an adult I’ve made it a tradition to watch the parade every Thanksgiving morning. Miracle on 34^th Street was one of my favorite Christmas movies. Macy’s and the Thanksgiving Day parade was an amazing, wonder-filled event.

To me, this is an incredible opportunity and I’m very grateful that this is in the works. What fun it will be!

I leave the Monday morning before Thanksgiving and arrive in New York around 12:30PM. Over the next few days, I’ll be involved with rehearsals and social events. I’m so excited to be living this childhood dream of being a part of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and plan on blogging more about it each week as I find out more details.

I hope that you all will join me on this magical adventure and be sure to watch the parade Thanksgiving morning. You might see me there singing away!

Living the Waking Dream

Living the Waking Dream…

by Drew Bankston

I don’t always write. Well, I do write a lot, but it’s not how I support my family, yet. My regular job is as an Asset Protection Detective in a department store. What that means is that I do my best to prevent people from walking out with merchandise that they haven’t paid for. The biggest question that I get from people when I tell them what I do is, “Are you very busy?” My answer is always the same, “yes”.

It’s amazing but someone steals in the store everyday. I don’t always catch everyone, but I do catch many and most are prosecuted. The other day there were two women in my store. The entire scenario is a long story, but I’ll keep it short. These two women were working together. They had a bunch of kid’s clothes and some men’s activewear. They also had a stroller and a three month old baby. They took all of the clothes into a fitting room and came out with nothing but the stroller. I looked in the fitting room and there was nothing in there but some empty hangers. Either they were great magicians or shoplifters. I chose to believe the second choice.

As I would do, I stopped them as they exited the store and asked for our merchandise back. The woman pushing the stroller became very verbally abusive, tried to run me over with the stroller and refused to cooperate. Now, here’s what really got to me. She stepped to the side of the stroller and picked up her baby and yelled at me to just take the clothes. There were no clothes in the stroller. I again told her that she needed to return the stolen property. At this point she reached down under the stroller and retrieved a backpack stuffed full of clothes and threw it at me, knocking me backwards. She and her friend then ran. She used her baby to protect herself. That really irritated me as a parent. Not only was she mad at me for stopping her and recovering our merchandise, which she obviously felt entitled to, but she put a small baby at risk.

What is wrong with people? She tried to take almost $800 worth of clothing, probably to sell it to someone else. 

I work for a living. It’s not a glamorous job and sometimes not very rewarding. I also write and hope someday, that it will be my main source of income. I write because I love to entertain, educate and make people feel good. I have bills to pay and a family to support. I don’t steal from others. I’m honest and no matter how bad things get, I find ways to make it work without resorting to thievery or possibly hurting my children! I love my family.

I believe in helping others. I love to make people smile and laugh, and I believe others should do the same. It doesn’t cost anything and it sure makes other people feel good. Everyone goes through bad times, but those bad times don’t last forever. With a little help, encouragement and a pat on the back, we could all go so much farther. I know that someday my writing will put me in a position where I can help so many others. I hope that, in some way, it does now. Do what you can to at least put a smile on the face next to you. It might come back around when you need it the most!

Crazy Little Thing Called...

Crazy Little Thing Called...

A Crazy Little Thing Called……

By Drew Bankston

Love. It’s everywhere we look and every place we go. It permeates our popular music. It’s in television commercials and is used to sell a myriad of products. We have an entire day devoted to it. We try to promote it between ourselves to make the world a better place. We share it with everyone and find those special people to share it more deeply with. There is always one person, however, that we tend to forget. One of the most important people in our lives. The one and only person without whom we would never be able to survive. We sometimes forget to love ourselves!

As individuals, we are the hardest person to forgive when it comes to, well, just about anything. So many people look at who they are and either want to change or wish that they had changed a long time ago. If we attempt to change and are unsuccessful, we chastise ourselves and become, many times, sullen and withdrawn. We are our own most powerful critics. Is this the way we should be?

We tend to forgive others of their shortcomings, so why would we not do the same for ourselves? It’s important for us to treat ourselves as good or better than we treat others.

Raising our opinions of ourselves is one of the most critical things that we can do. How can we treat others with respect, with love or kindness if we can’t do the same with ourselves? Make it a goal today to learn to make you the most important person in your life so that you can more effectively treat others the best possible and make the world the best place ever, to live.

All You Have to Do, is...

All You Have to Do, is…

By Drew Bankston

Dream. We all have dreams. Some of them become passions. Others fade with time and become forgotten memories that will be brought up to grandkids later in life as something that we wanted to have come to into reality, but for whatever reasons, they never did.

I have a dream, which is huge to me. It’s a dream that encompasses numerous other smaller dreams. Over the past five years I’ve worked on this dream. Being human, I haven’t always done everything that I could, everyday, to reach my dreams and goals. Lately, I’ve been more focused on where I want to be and how I want to get there. My big dream has become much more important to me.

Over time, my dream has evolved. At one time, my dream was to be a published author. I’ve reached that dream now, having published twelve books and working on five more right now. Now my dream is to become an author in demand. I look forward to the day when I have a following of people who anticipate my next book. Right now, I’m working on how to do that. My dream also includes allowing my wife to be able to do whatever she wants, whether it’s working or not.

It’s very strange to me how this has to come to pass. I’ve never been one to brag about myself or what I do, but I’m finding out that first and foremost, I have to be my number one fan. I love my stories, and my characters and I love to share them with people. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not about money, but it’s about the love of writing and sharing my words with others. So, you might ask, what has made this dream become more important? It’s easy to explain.

It was five and a half weeks ago that I suddenly developed double vision. On a recent visit to the eye doctor, I was told that my vision has improved a small amount. I can move my right eye and additional five degrees. I’m not really certain what that means, but in reality, I’m not seeing much better than I was before that visit. In fact, most of today it has seemed like it’s been worse. Being a writer with double vision is tough. My eyes get tired very quickly trying to focus on the screen. My dream is still my dream and I wonder what will happen to that dream should my vision never improve.

 So over the past few weeks, I’ve been trying harder, taking risks, reading when I can about how to make this a reality. I will make this dream come true. I will find ways to share these things with you.

In the meantime, I encourage all of you to please look at your dreams. Figure out how to make them come true. Don’t wait until something happens that either forces you to act, or makes you give up. Dreams are your wishes that have the ability to become reality, but they need your help to do so. I’m working hard, daily, to make mine a reality. I believe that you can make yours come true as well!