Useppa Reunion

Merry CHRISTmas everyone! Hope everyone is having a spectacular day-I definitely am=)

I'm in Florida for a couple days for a memorial of a dear friend who passed in September. I met her when I worked on Useppa Island. While I lived on Useppa the members and homeowners became by second family, one that I miss dearly at times now that I'm back in Ohio with my blood family. Being back on Useppa has been awesome and its only been a day and a half.

Seeing all the wonderful people again that occupy this island has been such a joy and the warmer weather and blue skies has been so refreshing since all I"ve seen in Ohio is snow and ice lately. I lived on Useppa for about a year and a half and I took the time to know who everyone was and as a bartender what they drank. There was two ways you could live on this island; one being just an employee going to work or two, being an employee who got involved and interested in the people who lived here. I chose the latter. It made my time here so memorable and enriching and something I will never forget.

You never know when you'll find a new friend or mentor. Be open to people and don't think because someone's too pretty she won't be nice or he's too rich to be friends with you. One of the people I adore most from Useppa is a 81 yr old man who is wealthy and very successful but you would never know it talking to him. He is laid back, intelligent and kind and a fantasic person. His wife is the one who passed and I'm here for her memorial. His neighbors are originally from England and also very successful in life and two of the sweetest, kindest people you could ever meet. This island is full of very intelligent, funny, comical, interesting, kind, generous, people but you would never know it, if you didn't talk to them and get to know them.

After I left Useppa it was never the place I missed, it has always been the people. They are the "things" that made my time here so special and hard to leave. My memories aren't of the island but the people on the island and seeing them all again is such an amazing feeling. If I hadn't taken the time to get to know them, my time here would have been wasted and I wouldn't have had such a great experience.