I left the nest in 1985. I can still hear my mom saying, “Tommy, get as far away from here as you can” as I wrestled with the decision of where to pursue my college baseball career. Sounds un-momlike, I know. But my mother knew I needed to find my own way in life and that would happen only by physical separation from my family. As usual, she was right. I could have walked-on at a Division I school or accepted a scholarship to Troy State in Alabama. I chose the latter although I had never heard of the place before receiving a phone call in May from the coach there. Moving to Troy was the single best decision I had made in my life to that point and I have my mother to thank for cementing that choice.
Smiling Helps the Soul
The gifts God gave by leading me to Troy and eventually to Tuscaloosa (University of Alabama) for a Masters Degree were so incredibly important to the course my life would take. I had the chance to grow up and begin to form my own belief system and opinions in a very conservative culture – the deep South, I was part of two consecutive Division II national championship baseball teams, had the opportunity to play professionally afterwards, and I found Accounting as an academic and professional pursuit. But most importantly He reaffirmed the depth and strength of my Catholic Faith, and solidified in my mind that being politically and socially conservative was most consistent with Church Doctrine.
In 1990 I accepted a position with Arthur Andersen in Tampa. Alabama had been my home for five years, but I felt it was time to return to Florida. My parents were aging and that’s where all my childhood friends were. It was at Arthur that I met my wife Leanne. Before meeting Leanne, my choices in women weren’t the best and certainly my intentions with them were far from honorable and Christian. But I was making my way through a Faith journey, far from a perfect one, and I felt it was time to find someone who shared my deepest beliefs and feelings – that was Leanne. She was a professional, highly educated and from a good family. Another gift from God.
In 1993 I made the next most important and best decision of my life and that was to ask Leanne to marry me. We were married that year and in 1996 John Thomas Voiland came along. How unbelievably happy we were. Strangely enough, soon afterwards I began to experience anxiety attacks. I got through it, but on my own when I should have turned to our Lord – He was calling me. In 1999, Allison Lee arrived, we fell in love on day one. By that time, Leanne and I were living the American dream. We were making great money, had two wonderful children and had built our dream home. What else could a man want? But unfortunately for me, it was not enough. I felt a continued and insatiable desire to succeed. Although we were consistently at Sunday Mass, my relationship with our Lord had faded.
In 2001, I left a great job to start my own company. In retrospect, a great decision based only on the very hard and painful lessons it taught me, but it was financial suicide, I just didn’t know it yet. My ego and need to excel blinded me from my economic responsibilities as a husband and father. It took a few years, but my company began to make money. However, the business had caused Leanne and me to run up substantial debt. By 2006 I was completely burned out attempting to make the business a success and again experienced anxiety attacks. But these were crippling. The entire experience completely changed my life going forward. I had to become a different person, I had to change my focus, I had to keep my eyes on the Lord and what His will for me.
This experience, another gift from God and the effects of which I still deal with, began another maturation period for me, not unlike my move to Troy all those years ago. Through it tall, the only place I could turn was to God and his bride here on Earth – my beloved Catholic Faith. I also realized that I had to focus my energy on much more than my job and so I began to spend a lot more time with my family, and I began to write. My topic of choice was politics and so I began to opine on various political issues, from a conservative perspective. I began to send emails to a group distribution list until my good friend Bernie told me to blog – and so here I am. Oh yeah, and then in December of 2008 our Lord sends our family His latest gift; Jessica Anne Voiland after ten years since our last child. God just keeps blessing me, although I don’t know why.
This latest gift still is working its way through my Personal Story – stay tuned.
