Amiee Mueller - Destination Awesome: Get the Life You Want Even if You Have to Beat the Odds

DESTINATION AWESOME

DESTINATION AWESOME

Get the life you want
Even if you have to beat the odds

AMIEE MUELLER

DESTINATION AWESOME

Get the life you want Even if you have to beat the odds

2015 AMIEE MUELLER.

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ISBN 978-1-63047-503-1 paperback
ISBN 978-1-63047-504-8 eBook
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014920836

Cover Design by:
Rachel Lopez
www.r2cdesign.com

Interior Design by:
Bonnie Bushman
bonnie@caboodlegraphics.com

In an effort to support local communities and raise awareness and funds, Morgan James Publishing donates a percentage of all book sales for the life of each book to Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND SINCERE THANKS

There are many people involved when getting a book ready for publication. Each plays an important role and deserves to be recognized for his or her contribution.

Thank you A.J., Jon, John, Denise, Lindsay, Gail, and Heather for your technical guidance and honest opinions.

Thank you Roy, Julian, Ryan, Patton, Chuck, Aaron, Loyd, Brett, Marc, Waseem, Aiden, and Yasemin for sharing your stories with me so I could share them with the world.

Thank you Josh for supporting me and believing in me. You are the highlight of all of my days.

To my family, thank you for letting me share our secrets and mistakes knowing it could make us look bad but could also help others feel or be better.

INTRODUCTION FROM THE AUTHOR

One of my most memorable Thanksgivings was spent eating fries and searching for an alcoholic. I was eight-years-old and my mom and her husband drove more than thirty miles from their home in Goshen, Indiana to pick up my brother and me to spend the holiday with them.

After they arrived, my step-dad shared a bottle of whiskey with my dad. Offering alcohol to an alcoholic was not one of my dads better ideas. My step-dad was so obliterated when it was time to leave, my mom had to drive.

By the time we made it back to Goshen, Mom was fed up with his drunkenness. She drove to the house they shared with his parents, reached across him to open the passenger side door from within the car, lifted her right leg, like a dog at a fire hydrant, and pushed him out of the car with her foot. Then, she drove off with us kids and a mission to find some Thanksgiving dinner.

Because of the holiday, most businesses were closed. The only open restaurant we could find was Long John Silvers. After much protest from us about eating fish, Mom ordered us fries and soda for dinner. No turkey, no stuffing, no mashed potatoes or pienever mind the warm feelings of togetherness I assumed most families shared on Thanksgiving.

I looked around the empty restaurant and it was clear that most families were not having fries and soda for dinner. I felt sad. This was nothing like the happy family gatherings Id seen on TV or heard kids talk about at school. I felt deprived of more than nutritious food.

After our carborrific meal, we headed back to her in-laws house only to discover that no one had seen my step-dad since we dropped him off. Then began the frantic search for the missing alcoholic. After 30 minutes of running up and down the street and in and out of other peoples yards in the dark, his father found him in the spare bathroom, passed out on the toilet with his pants down and mouth hanging wide open.

If you havent already guessed, holidays in my family were as far from awesome or a Hallmark movie as you could get. Dont get me wrong; I dont think I have the most appalling of families. Ive heard enough tragic stories to know my upbringing could have been far worse. If you judged them solely by their friendliness, my family would rate pretty well. However, my childhood experiences werent conventional. Only taking into account my siblings, parents, parents siblings and my cousins, we have multiples of each: high school drop-outs, alcoholics, drug addicts, those who were in and out of jail, victims of molestation, teenage pregnancies, bankruptcies, government entitlement recipients and divorces. Remarriages. And divorces again.

Raised by my truck-driving dad in a trailer park, I had little knowledge of the world outside my town. Other than occasional ride-a-longs in my dads eighteen-wheeler, up to the time I was fourteen, I had never done any travel outside of northern Indiana. I had never been to a play, musical, opera, or Broadway-type show. I couldnt have told you who the president was, who Michelangelo was, what cable TV was, or that the salad fork is usually the fork furthest from the plate.

Thinking back, its possible some people looked at me back then and thought, Poor kid. Shell be lucky if she makes it anywhere. They might have thought my future was set, determined by unfortunate circumstances. They might have assumed the odds were stacked too high against me, there was no hope for a bright future or a different path.

They would have been wrong.

My life may have been unfortunate up to that point, but it didnt have to be tragic. I may have been born into some crappy circumstances, but it didnt mean I couldnt make an awesome life for myself. It did mean, however, that Id have to beat the odds to do it.

I know how it feels to be on my own, to have multiple areas in which to improve, to have a vision for a better lifestyle while not having all of the answers on how to bring it to fruition. I understand the sensation of being both scared and excited for the future. From trailer park to success story, not only did I put myself through college, graduate at the top of my class, move into a great career after college, succeed at a high level and earn a great income, I also nurtured wonderful relationships and developed myself along the way. I defied the odds, created the life I envisioned as a young person, and have been able to give back to others and help them do the same.

Through my own experience as well as mentoring and coaching hundreds of young adults in my career, I know, without a doubt, it is absolutely possible to move up the ladder of career, wealth, and fulfillment regardless of past or current circumstances.

This book is a compilation of stories that illuminate how I went from being an angry, untrusting, poor, socially-inept person with zero self-esteem to a happy, loving, confident, financially secure business professional with good friends, a better-than-I-could-have-ever-dreamed-of spouse, quality connections, stronger relationships with my family, and a passion for helping others absorb the lessons from which Ive benefitted. Youll read many stories throughout these pages of my own experiences as well as those of others who have made significant, positive changes in their lives. I wrote this book to help you do it too.