By Toni St. Martin
Editor’s Note: Our October 2008 Focus On Mexico group was a very unique group that we all enjoyed every much. They were the first group ever to come up with a special name. This is one participant’s story about how that came about.
Here’s is my version of how we came up with our name "out of focus." At least this is what I can remember.
I think it was Marie who had mentioned another group you had on your Focus on Mexico program that formed a special bond like our group did. They called themselves "full of mirth," representing their bond and representing the initials FOM for Focus on Mexico. (April 2007 program!) Marie had mentioned that we should come up with a name for our group since we had formed such close relationships and bonded so well together.
It all started on Sunday evening on our bus ride home from dinner. It was Karen that said we should all just go back to the hotel and get a good night’s sleep to get ready for our Focus on Mexico classes on Monday. I think it was that "twinkle" in her eye that made us all think…yeah right ! So off the bus we go into the hotel with Dave (St. Martin) leading the pack, and down to the bar we went for some "extra credit" as we like to call it.
We decided to have our own "University at the Bar" classes to get to know each other better. And that we did, telling stories that made us laugh so hard that our sides and faces hurt from laughing so much. We had some pretty good stories about our various experiences in life. These extra credit classes were the perfect opportunity and brought us together to form a very unique bond.
That’s when we decided we should come up with a special name for such a special group. For several evenings, we each threw out some names that we liked. And------one by one, it was nay, nah, umm, until one night Steve Meza blurted out, "how about Out of Focus?" Wow…unanimously we all agreed that would be the perfect name for us. Then Toni commented, “That's a very good name, because, given our ‘extra credit’ activities, we certainly aren't "in focus ! ! !" and then we laughed some more.
And, now you also know the ‘rest of the story’…why some of us were "yawning" at our morning Focus on Mexico classes. It was all those extra credit classes we were taking at night. It was all so worth it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As you can see, this was a very entertaining group, and we will never forget you.