Forum Date: Monday, November 26, 2012
Dr. Barry Morris, the current city council person for Florence was our speaker during the last forum. There are 6 people on our city council and the mayor makes person #7. Dr. Morris worked in UNA's Economic Department. He has dedicated his service to his family and to the public/city of Flo-town.
"Love your neighbors. Love yourself."
That opening quote was my favorite part of Dr. Morris's entire speech. He explained that sometimes we forget that if we aren't mentally and physically strong ourselves, we can't be expected to help other people.
I appreciated that Dr. Morris was one of the few speakers that was real with us. He discussed the importance of budgeting (something that I have got to work on) and gave us a website to help us: www.MINT.com. Hearing him talk about budgeting made the future and becoming a "big girl" suddenly became very real. I loved the worksheet he gave us titled "How to be a millionaire without winning the lottery." It was really educational and made me want to go out and save my money. If I actually had any money to my name, that is.
When I was younger, I was assigned a project in which I had to decide what I would spend my money on if I had a million dollars. Did I decide to buy a fancy car? No. Did I plan to travel around the world? Nope. I, Emily Alves, decided to open a zoo. Funny, and quite unrealistic, I know. If given that same amount of money today, however, I think that we all know what I would use it for.
If I was a millionaire, this is what I would do:
1. I suppose I would be partially practical and save part of it. Be responsible. Yadda, yadda, yadda.
2. Can you say SHOPPING!? I would be doing some serious retail therapy. I can't even imagine being able to walk into Free People and actually buying some of their clothes. Gosh.
3. Donate to charity. The hard part about this step would be to decide which organization to give some money to. For me, that's why picking a platform for my civic engagement is so hard.
Another adult concept that Dr. Morris filled us in on was that it is "better to give than recieve." Civic clubs are built on that concept.
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