The Greatest Day in the History of the World? by Andrew Banner

I challenge you to think in great detail about this question.  There are so many historical events to look back on that forever changed the world we live in today.  This is not a simple question for most people.  Oddly enough, I can recall the day I discovered the answer to this question. 

            There was not a day that went by that my dad did not have something positive to say about someone or something that had happened within each day I can remember with my dad.  He was always so positive even in the moments that seemed tough to swallow.  My dad was what you would call a die-hard Pirates fan.  No matter how bad they were doing over the past 17 seasons he was always looking on the bright side.  I guess it’s no coincidence that last season as the Pittsburgh Pirates were having another semi-promising year at the midpoint that my dad was updating me text by text day after day even after I told dad that I really had no interest.  Leave it to dad to be the optimistic fan who knew that the Pirates would someday play again to the level they once played in the 70’s with his all-time favorite Roberto Clemente.  Just prior to dad’s passing he was filling me in on how the bucos were on a 9 game losing streak but they still had their chances to be above 500 with a handful of games left in the season.  The day dad passed, I sure as heck was not following the Pirates but those who were ever so close to me were.  The Pirates went onto change their fortune and win the game the day my dad passed, September 2^nd, 2011. 

            Sure the Pirates fell short of 500 again last season but they are on the rise again this season.  The relevance of the story is simply in the fact that one can never give up.  The day before I flew to San Diego to take on the semester of a lifetime was the day I truly knew how to answer, “what is the greatest day in the history of the world?”  I know this because I wrote mom and dad a letter and hid it so they would not find it until after I set sail.  The letter told them how much I loved them and respected all that they had done for me in my life but most importantly that they should know that I will be ok with being half way around the world from them because I had learned from them that today would be the best day of my life. 

            Eleanor Roosevelt said it best, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift; that’s why they call it the present.”  Dad’s outlook on life was a choice.  He lived everyday like it was his last and had no regrets.  Let today be the best day of your life!

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Happy Father's Day Tony Banner by Lindsay Banner

It's been 27 years since Tony Banner was given the official title of "Dad;" one of the many roles he successfully fulfilled and far exceeded his job requirements. He was even more excited to one day be a grandfather and shared that with Andrew and I frequently.  Unfortunately, neither of us were or are ready for that kind of commitment to date. We joked that we both needed to find someone first and Dad would poke back that that is only a minor hiccup in the process.  So whenever  I received a text this morning from my cousin that he and his wife welcomed their first child into the world, Samuel Anthony Banner, I thought, "Wow, Dad would be so honored."

The first father's day without Dad around and I have been stumped all week as to how to celebrate.  It's not like we spent the day together when he was around. He always played in the Clarion High School Football Golf Scramble with Andrew and I would leave to go complete some form of Habitat for Humanity trip with the church. However, I wanted to do something for him, something to remind me how lucky I am a little more than every other two hours that something crosses my mind reminding me of a him.  Luckily, having the opportunity to drive north a little over an hour and meet the new baby made planning my last minute father's day celebration a bit easier, but as I was running along the harbor yesterday morning I thought I need to finally draft a post for Andrew's blog regarding the creation of the endowment created at Clarion University in Dad's honor.

Ever since I can remember, my Dad has had a passion for sports. There are few people I know that can recite stats about athletes in the manner and multitude that my Dad could. My brother has come into his own in recent years, but my Dad had a pretty amazing ability to do so. He also had an ability to tell you exactly what he was doing at what he deemed to be major sporting events in his life, like most people of his generation do with the Kennedy assassination or 9/11 for my generation.  In my lifetime, my earliest memory is celebrating the Pens winning the Stanley Cup over the Minnesota North Stars in Morgantown, WV with my Uncle Tom and Aunt Mary.  Although I recall the days when the Pirates were competitive and the days of Bonilla, skinny Bonds, and Van Slyke, I have more vivid memories of discussing what happened since 1992. I remember going to the last Pirate games at Three River's with Dad; watching Lemieux, Jagr and Ronnie Francis (one of his favorite's) at the Civic Arena; his excitement in going to Cooperstown to the Baseball Hall of Fame twice over; circling the highway in Boston to simply pass Fenway; receiving the call the day the Pens signed Crosby and gained hope for the new generation of Pens hockey; going to my first game at the new PNC Stadium with him during the Knights of Columbus Sunday tailgate; his envy when I had the opportunity to go to Heinz Field before him (even though it was to see N'SNYC - yes I just admitted that); receiving the call from my satellite phone on the MV Explorer while I was off the Brazil informing me that the Steelers had won the Super Bowl; hearing him teary eyed over the phone in my apartment while he watching the Red Sox receive the World Series Trophy ; and talking about how much he loved watching  the hand shake at the end of each playoff series of hockey. I think about how much I miss hearing him give me the recap of the SportsCenter episode I just viewed while I drove to work each morning - not necessarily recapping the events, but how each person highlighted through an interview handled themself.

But amongst all these great moments, I think about how much more he cherished the success and moments for the amateur athletes he witnessed within a twenty mile radius of his home. Beginning my cousin Ted's sophomore year of high school, me age 7, Andrew age 5, we attended every Keystone basketball game in the old gym supporting not only Ted, but my Dad's high school classmate and head coach Greg Heath. After Ted's automobile accident and being partially paralyzed on his left side (I think that's the right side, like I said, details were my Dad's strength), I can remember just how excited Dad was that he was going to be able to play his senior year.  A few years later as I progressed into high school, we attended every one of my cousin Chris's basketball games as well.

Naturally, Dad never missed a game of Andrew or mine. From countless basketball, volleyball, and softball games, to golf matches and Andrew's one year football career - he and my mom never missed a thing. And after every one of those games, either Andrew and Dad or me and Dad would take at least a half hour to discuss the game from both a strategy breakdown standpoint to the lessons to be taken away from the situations and conclusion of each game.  I think of several moments that stand out such as the night the boys basketball team beat Moniteau after losing by 60 points earlier in the season and him and Kevin Beichner nearly suffocating BJ Roth in his celebration, or beating Keystone my junior year to win Districts for volleyball, and his pride in speaking about Andrew's golf seasons. I contribute a lot of who I am today to the time he took out of his day to point out the lessons learned on the court to everyday life. 

As I segued into college and had the opportunity to play at Clarion University, I think back to how ecstatic he was to have the opportunity to see me play for four more years across town. And like high school, he and my mom never missed a game. Driving no less than an hour an a half, he and Mom were always there. When I blew my right knee out, not once, but twice, he drove me to Pittsburgh at least once a week for six months after each reconstructive surgery.  Little did I know how much I would look back and love that additional time spent with him. I will not forget how he and my Mom opened their home up to all of my teammates over the course of my career, particularly for Thanksgiving  Dinner, and the hug I received after losing to Kutztown in NCAA Regionals  at Lock Haven my senior year ending my volleyball career.

Recently, we were approached by a few very close friends indicating that an endowment had been created in Dad's name at Clarion University.  Andrew, Mom and I were truly humbled by the generosity of others.  Mom would be fulfilling any further financial requirements to ensure that it was fully endowed. We were informed that we would need to stipulate the guidelines for the future recipient.  As you can imagine, this was more difficult than it may seem. In recent years, Mom and Dad have attended the majority of Clarion University home basketball and volleyball  games. When Andrew assisted with womens' golf and womens' basketball, he became that more attached to Tippin Gym.  Growing up, his favorite week of the year was that of PIAA high school basketball and he without fail, he would ask Andrew and I each year while sitting in Tippin Gym, "Are we in heaven?" and we would respond, "No, We're in Tippin Gym." (Field of Dreams anyone?)

After much deliberation, we decided that the endowment would be created for a women's volleyball player qualifying as a scholar athlete. Considering the years Dad spent traveling across the state to support Clarion University volleyball, as well as Clarion High School volleyball, and from the lessons learned, experiences had, friends acquired along the way, and respect had for the two individuals currently leading those programs, we found it to be most appropriate.   Andrew has attached a link in which you can click and contribute, if you would like.  Although we would love your support, this entry is more for the purpose of informing rather than soliciting.

The endowment works such that $25,000 must be raised to be fully endowed.  Once the $25,000 mark is achieved, money can be given in the form of a scholarship.  The $25,000 principal amount will never be drawn upon, only the interest earned on the principal amount will be given out annually.  Typically, 3% is earned on the principal for purposes of distributing in the form of an annual scholarship. 


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Have a Little Faith by Lindsay Banner

Life's funny in that a single lessons can be brought to your attention through many different mediums within a short time frame when it is the exact lesson that needs to be learned. 

Instance #1: Recently, I had the opportunity to visit my brother and spend the long weekend enjoying the company of his new friends, as well as the friends I had met on my previous trip to the big D.  As always, when in the company of my little bro, I had a great time - perhaps too much of a good time - but a great time nonetheless.  On the day I was getting ready to depart, my mom, who was also visiting, and I decided to grab some guacamole and drinks before I flew home. As is the family tradition, we were kicking back and reflecting on the time spent together, where we are in life, and all the other things that needed to be shared before our conversations were limited to impersonal conversations due to distance and lack of interaction - not that we don't communicate daily, it's just not the same. During my reflection, I realized the most prominent characteristic that had stuck out about my brother during my most recent visit was his ability to find the wonderful characteristics in each person he had shared with me during my visit and embellish them. He was so positive and loved each of them unconditionally rarely seeing any flaws. Ironically, as I was discussing this with my mom, I had just mentioned how somewhere along the way I had become so much more cynical than I used to be. I'm not proud of it, but leave it to my brother to make me wake up and realize just how much I had digressed from the positive individual I had once been.

Instance #2: Not less than seven hours later, I hop off the plane from Dallas.  I'm completing my daily Facebook stalk and stumble upon a quote I haven't seen in a while.  This quote was posted from one of my good friends from study abroad, and is a quote my dad would often refer to.

"People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered; forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives: Be kind anyway.  

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.  Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating others could destroy overnight: Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it may never be enough: Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God.  It was never between you and them anyway."

- Mother Theresa

It is one of my favorites, but perhaps something I had recently forgotten after getting caught up in the daily grind and the experiences that cause someone to become cynical.

Countless times, my dad preached you must believe in people.  Everyone has something to bring to the table and you must find it and emphasize it.  If you lose that belief, you are missing out on some of the most valuable and fulfilling experiences in life.   How quickly you can forget when someone isn't there to be that little bird chirping in your ear. 

Instance #3:  I return from the airport and enter my house to be greeted by my two amazing roommates and my roommate's dog after my trip to Dallas, both products of Craigslist.

Four years ago, when I first moved to Maryland (hard to believe it has already been four years) I lucked out when having only a week to find a place to live my college next door neighbor, Eric Baumgartel, so graciously offered an empty bedroom that became available.  The apartment complex was less than ten minutes from my new place of employment and I was living with someone I knew. Awesome!  Eric quickly moved up in his job and was able to take a better position a few hours away which required him to move. I had to find someone to move in and someone fast since I couldn't afford the place by myself.

Enter Craigslist. At the time, I thought this is a tool that everyone used to find roommates. In hindsight and upon hundreds of discussions with others as to "how do you know your roommate?" I realized it wasn't so common, although it seemed like the natural thing to do.  Believe in people and see where it will land me. You better believe Tony Banner was pushing me to find someone through Craigslist, but a little bit apprehensive about having his 22 year old daughter find a random soul to live with.  Some of my friends thought I was absolutely nuts. They thought I was compromising my safety, especially since I was considering living with a male. But by trusting my gut and meeting a few people, I landed Stefan Traylor as my first Craigslist roommate. Stefan was a blessing in disguise, not only did he pay rent and utilities on time, he was exposed me to so many new things, things that you just don't find in Clarion, Pa. He constantly pushed me to think outside the outside the box. So when he said, "Let's move into the City [Baltimore]" I agreed.

Over the course of the past four years, two of my three additional roommates have been Craigslisters. When I respond to the question "how do you know your roommate?" with "Craigslist" they do a double take and typically respond "are you serious?!" But in all honesty it has been one of the most rewarding experiences.  I have grown in so many ways and been exposed to so many new thoughts, ideas, and activities because I trusted in my gut and in human nature.  When my dad passed, Stefan was one of the first people to pick up the phone and call, and Tessa and Andrew, my current roommates, drove up the day of the funeral, a whopping five hours, to be there for it.  All because my dad pushed me to have faith in the good nature of people.

So maybe I'm not as cynical as I perceive myself; however, it is a reminder to sharpen the saw and remember to trust in others because each of us has so much to offer if we have a little faith.