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Dear readers,
Fortunate are those who do what they love. My dad
used to tell me, “It doesn’t matter what you are in
life as long as you love it so much you would do it
for free.” He would tell me, “You can be a trash
collector or President of the United States; if you
love what you do, you will make enough money and you
will be happy.” He was right. While my children were
growing up I told them the same thing. I always
stressed that they should find their passion. I
tried to help them to find that one thing that they
would want to do no matter what.
Finding your passion in life is easier said than
done. Many people, I would dare say most people,
never find it. Most people aren’t even sure what
that passion might be. Some of us are lucky and we
get hit over the head with it. I am one of those
people.
When I was growing up, I wanted to become a doctor.
I love science and I am pretty good at diagnosing
problems of all kinds. I even won a significant
award in science when I was in school. But something
happened along the way to my medical degree:
marriage and children. My own dreams were put on the
back burner while I raised kids and cooked on the
front burner. I never went back.
Then, 16 years ago my husband was promoted and we
moved our family to a new area. I started FAMILIES
Magazine in the basement of my home. It was then I
discovered I love running a magazine. I REALLY love
running a magazine. There are times when it's
difficult, like when someone says something is wrong
about the magazine and damages our reputation. Or
when some of our people are not working, for
personal reasons and we are short of personnel. But
when it is good, it is so, so good. When we have a
parent tell us that something in our magazine helped
them, or tell us about a product that they purchased
because they saw it in our magazine that was a
benefit to their family. It's great when they tell
us that they look forward to each issue and always
find something of value in the magazine. Those are
the times when you really feel good about what you
do. I feel our team, our family here at FAMILIES
Magazine, really comes together every day to do
things that help parents in the Washington area. We
provide a service and support for parents. Those
things make you feel really good.
Our Best for Families Readers’ Choice Awards are one
of those things. We hear from parents almost every
week about how much they like (some say “love”) our
awards. It is not a scientific survey or evaluation;
it is just the opinions of our readers. Each year in
the January and February issues of FAMILIES Magazine
we run a list of categories and ask our readers to
tell us what their favorites are. There are all
kinds of things in the survey. It runs from Best
Doctor to Best Sunny Day Outing. There are
categories for Best New Video to Best Place to Buy
Children’s Shoes. You can find our readers’ favorite
children’s menu or the best delivery pizza.
Each year we have a few complaints from people who
think that it is unfair to publish a list of what
people have told us that they think is the best.
They tell us it is unfair because sometimes a
company or person is recognized that they think is
definitely not the best. But, someone thought they
were the best. On the other hand, each year we
receive hundreds of comments from our readers who
say they “LOVE” our Best for Families Readers’
Choice Awards and can’t wait for it to come out each
year.
This is a case where the readers win. We know they
want it, so we keep doing it.
Enjoy the 2005 Best for Families nominees and
winners. Enjoy the rest of the July issue of
FAMILIES Magazine as well; we all loved putting it
together for you! I hope you too are doing something
in your life you love doing.
‘Til August, Happy Parenting!
Brenda
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