Okay, so everywhere you go these days you hear the word RECESSION!! When I was growing up my parents used to talk about recession all the time and I began to fear it because of what I would hear when they spoke about it.

When I was a Teenager growing up in Ocala, Florida we used to cruise up and down the Blvd. (Hwy 40 for those who remember) We used to literally drive up and down this road all night long, meeting people at Burger King on 40 and then parking at the cascades and just talking into the early hours of morning before going home and crashing for most of the next day.

In the 90's we could do that because we were paying around $1.00 per gallon for gas. I moved away for many years and came back in 2005 and always wondered what happened to the people who used to cruise the Blvd and how come it did not continue with the current Teenagers.

We have a road called Hwy 200 which has also been nicknamed "Hospitality Avenue" because of all the major chain restaurants on the road. Today, there have been many of those chains going out of business, some of them packing up in the middle of the night with no explanation.

Our Local Newspaper is called the Ocala Star Banner. I remember being 16 years old and looking for work in this newspaper. Today, if you look for a job, the employment ads went from being one whole classified page to a couple columns. It is truly scary.

I see Real Estate Agents and Companies that have been in the business for 20 and 30 years going out of business. Some of the best Agents you will ever meet are leaving the business, that shocks and frightens me more then anything.

Through all these changes, I remain positive. I do not know where I pull my optimism from but it is there and if you ask me about my business I say "I am doing great"! I guess I am hoping my positive energy will rub off on others.

I firmly believe that we will rebound, I intend to be there when it happens and look forward to making 2009 my best year yet!