What I've Learned: Esther J. Cepeda

In honor of my birthday this Sunday – which I’ll celebrate with a carnival of activities not limited to a viewing of the new Disney flick Beverly Hills Chihuahua – I’m shamelessly ripping off a favorite feature from my very favorite magazine, Esquire, which has accompanied me on many a weary night.

What I’ve Learned: Esther J. Cepeda

Spirit, 34, Chicago

Instead of fretting about every little thing, I live as though every experience I’ve had was in preparation for this very moment (because it was).

People ask me: "How do you find time to do so much stuff?" I like to quote Morgan Freeman in The Shawshank Redemption: "Get busy livin’ or get busy dyin’." Besides, what else am I gonna do? Watch TV all night? Ain’t nuthin’ on.

No matter who dies, after awhile you do the unthinkable – outta nowhere you laugh. You laugh so hard it feels like your heart is going to burst. You laugh so hard you cry. Then all of a sudden everything feels like it can be ok again.

Eat! I had a culinary awakening in 2004 – I was at the grocery store minding my own business when saw a disposable pepper mill with fresh peppercorns in it. I bought it and my life has never been the same. Who would have thought a two-dollar pepper mill could transform a life from ho-hum to va-va-voom?

Sure it takes a lot of guts, grit, and determination to run a half-marathon but that’s the easy part. The hard part is getting up at 5am when the mercury shows it’s actually below freezing outside, and logging in the training miles with no peppy water station attendants or family members calling out your name at mile five. Then you say that to someone who’s run a full marathon and they chuckle quietly thinking: "loser!"

You might think being a teacher is an easy gig but it’s the hardest damn thirteen bucks an hour anyone will ever earn. On a daily basis you fear for the future of our country, laugh your ass off at a stray witty remark, and get humbled by acts of kindness. Ok, the acts of kindness thing not that often, but still.

Pro-life or pro-choice? When it’s you on the exam table with an eight inch needle sticking out of your pregnant belly and the moment of extended dead silence occurs and you get quickly escorted to the small room with the nice lady with the three boxes of tissues and you get the terrible news … even when you choose life, it’s still nice to know you have a choice.

The secret to my success is I shut my mouth and listen. People adore that, and they never forget it.

I never liked the "stranded on a desert island" question because even if I were stranded on a desert island and even if Lon Chaney Sr. and Ben Franklin were there with me, and even if we did have a chess board and an unlimited supply of pizza, I still have to say…if I were stranded on a desert island I’d want a motor boat and enough gas to get home.

Yes, Lon Chaney, Sr. – NOT Junior Wolf dude! I’m talkin’ ‘bout The Phantom of the Opera, Hunchback of Notre Dame, the "Man of a Thousand Faces." It’s the hands, it’s all about the hands.

Oh and…cheese and sausage, of course.

Chihuahuas are complex creatures: crabby, indignant, manipulative, resourceful, simultaneously cute and hideous. Sort of like cats, but willing to whore themselves by parceling out affection in order to further their own sinister agenda.

Learning to play the guitar takes a lot of time and it’s hard on the fingers but after all that work, when you can finally sit on your front porch on a warm summer night and accompany yourself on the Stones’ "Wild Horses," it’s sweet. Very sweet.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Comments

[Phillip Jackson]

First...is that baby you? Cute as a button!!!
Second ..."Get busy livin’ or get busy dyin’."
Third...Happy Birthday you renaissance Latina! You were made for the 21st century. Small but powerful! Biting but sweet. Here, there and everywhere!
Fourth...Please let me know whenever I might be of service.

[Chris Martin]

Happy Birthday! lets go out for a drink next week ok?

and can you play wild horses for me?:)

chris

[Frank Garcia]

Esther Happy Birthday and everything write about I read but do not agree in some but MOST!! Your Awesome....

[Mose]

And that, Ms. E.J. Cepeda, is why you're one of the Women We Love ... and would be happy to share a deserted island with anytime ...