When you have a small worry, fight the urge to fall down the rabbit hole. Before you get sucked into a state of panic, try to find the brighter side of the situation.

I like to tell school assemblies, “Remember that life is a journey.”

Tomorrow will not be the same as today. Today may have its problems, but tomorrow will bring new hope and resolutions, sometimes out of the most unexpected of places.

Before I go to bed, I try to remember that I have a choice: Do I allow my worries to overwhelm me, or do I choose joy and move forward? Every night, I want to choose to move forward, even it means asking for help. I don’t want my circumstances to dictate my choices for me.

So, make sure to stay in control. Don’t let your creative imagination blow a hamster-sized struggle into a Godzilla-sized one. Happiness a lot bigger than worries. It was true in ’88, and it’s true in ’09.

Larry and I drove up to Dayton, the night before, in the middle of a pretty bad thunderstorm with 70 mile per hour winds whipping our car from side to side. That was fun! (not really) I had a really hard time falling asleep at the hotel because the wind and rain made it sound like some dude was driving his souped up John Deere tractor outside my window. It would have been a good time to have some earplugs or something.

I was at W. Carrollton 2 years ago and my painting from that event was still hanging up in the high school cafeteria – cool! I guess I have the high school students to thank for my return visit – thanks for requesting me guys!

It was great to meet the superintendent of the school district, Rusty Clifford! Now here’s a guy who truly has a passion for students, teachers and for providing a positive environment for learning AND teaching.

A special thanks to Connie for making sure that everything was ready for the events; Haley, keep movin’ forward – wishing you a speedy recovery!

Guys, school break is just around the corner – finish strong, okay? and remember: Keep moving forward!

ps. Check out this video of Larry leading a clap-a-thon with the Elementary school kids. Who knew that clapping could be so tricky?

W. Carroltton School District Assembly from Ben Glenn, The Simple ADHD Xpert on Vimeo.

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Had an early morning today, heading out for the airport at 6am to be with all 1200 of you guys for the assembly. Nothing like a gymnasium packed with screaming kids to make my ADHD happy! I had a blast!

Then tonight we had a great turnout – 200+ students and parents, pretty good for a non-mandatory event. I’m so glad you all came out. I hope you could hear me (my voice is sort of not there right now, so hopefully a good night’s sleep will get it to come back). There were some great questions asked during the Q & A session – I’m sorry if I didn’t get to answer all of them – please post questions in the comments and I’ll do my best to either answer them directly or do a blog post about them, ok?

If there’s one thing that I need all you “special” people out there to know it is this: You are NOT alone! There are literally millions of people out there who have ADHD as well as other learning disabilities and not just kids, adults too! I believe the statistic is that only 15% of adults with ADHD ever get diagnosed. The rest of you just spend a lot of time wondering if you’re nuts. Well, you’re not! If what I shared tonight has you thinking that perhaps you may have ADHD, please do some research and educate yourself, then maybe, if you’re comfortable with it and can afford it, go get tested. The tests are not conclusive, but it might ease your mind some to know that ADHD is a possible diagnosis. Whatever the case may be, education is the key to successfully managing your symptoms and for creating a better life for yourself. Trust me, I’ve been there and being informed has made a world of difference in my life.

Anyway, enough of that. I’m exhausted and going to bed. Go Titans!! Night all!