Joe Weist

Phi Gamma Delta, FIJI

[Joe Weist @joeweist]

@SpyGammaDelta I'm kinda hurt that you haven't stopped by the Archives booth!

[Joe Weist @joeweist]

Eclipse has started!

[CALL TO ACTIVISM @CalltoActivism]

I absolutely love this story........ It made me cry.

"An 87 Year Old College Student Named Rose
The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn’t already know.

I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. I turned round to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me
with a smile that lit up her entire being.

She said, “Hi handsome. My name is Rose. I’m eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug?”

I laughed and enthusiastically responded, “Of course you may!” and she gave me a giant squeeze.
“Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?” I asked.

She jokingly replied, “I’m here to meet a rich husband, get married, and have a couple of kids…”

“No seriously,” I asked. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age.

“I always dreamed of having a college education and now I’m getting one!” she told me.
After class we walked to the student union building and shared a chocolate milkshake.

We became instant friends. Every day for the next three months, we would leave class together and talk nonstop. I was always mesmerized listening to this “time machine”
as she shared her wisdom and experience with me.

Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she reveled in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it up.

At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. I’ll never forget what she taught us.

She was introduced and stepped up to the podium.
As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she dropped her three by five cards on the floor. Frustrated and a little embarrassed she leaned into the microphone and simply said, “I’m sorry I’m so jittery. I gave up beer for Lent and this whiskey is killing me! I’ll never get my speech back in order so let me just tell you what I know.”

As we laughed she cleared her throat and began, “We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop
playing. There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success.

1) You have to laugh and find humor every day.

2) You’ve got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die.

We have so many people walking around who are dead and don’t even know it!

3) There is a huge difference between growing
older and growing up.

If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don’t do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old.

If I am eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do anything I will turn eighty-eight.

Anybody can grow older.

That doesn’t take any talent or ability.

The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity in change.

4) Have no regrets.

The elderly usually don’t have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those
with regrets.”

She concluded her speech by courageously singing “The Rose.

She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live them out in our daily lives.
At the year’s end Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago. One week after graduation Rose died
peacefully in her sleep.

Over two thousand college students attended her funeral in tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example that it’s
never too late to be all you can possibly be.

When you finish reading this, please send this peaceful word of advice to your friends and family, they’ll really enjoy it!

These words have been passed along in loving memory of ROSE.

REMEMBER, GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY. GROWING UP IS
OPTIONAL.

We make a Living by what we get,

We make a Life by what we give."

[Joe Weist @joeweist]

We will never forget. #911Anniversary

[Fascinating @fasc1nate]

Jesse Owens of USA winning gold for the long jump in the summer Olympics in Germany, 1936.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ The man saluting behind Owens is Lutz Long, a German who shared training tips with Owens and was the first to openly congratulate him after his final jump in full view of Hitler.

After the Olympics, the two kept in touch via mail. Below is Long's last letter to Owens while he was stationed with the German Army in North Africa during World War 2. Long was later killed in action during the allied invasion of Sicily in 1943.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣

"I am here, Jesse, where it seems there is only the dry sand and the wet blood. I do not fear so much for myself, my friend Jesse, I fear for my woman who is home, and my young son Karl, who has never really known his father.⁣⁣

My heart tells me, if I be honest with you, that this is the last letter I shall ever write. If it is so, I ask you something. It is a something so very important to me.

It is you go to Germany when this war done, someday find my Karl, and tell him about his father. Tell him, Jesse, what times were like when we not separated by war. I am saying—tell him how things can be between men on this earth.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣

If you do this something for me, this thing that I need the most to know will be done, I do something for you, now. I tell you something I know you want to hear. And it is true.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣

That hour in Berlin when I first spoke to you, when you had your knee upon the ground, I knew that you were in prayer.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Then I not know how I know. Now I do. I know it is never by chance that we come together. I come to you that hour in 1936 for purpose more than der Berliner Olympiade.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣

And you, I believe, will read this letter, while it should not be possible to reach you ever, for purpose more even than our friendship.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ I believe this shall come about because I think now that God will make it come about. This is what I have to tell you, Jesse.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣

I think I might believe in God.⁣⁣ And I pray to him that, even while it should not be possible for this to reach you ever, these words I write will still be read by you.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣

Your brother,⁣⁣ Luz"⁣⁣

[Joe Weist @joeweist]

I hope the guests at Mar-a-Lago don't want ketchup with their fries tonight.

[Joe Weist @joeweist]

@NoContextHumans Pass the butter.

[Joe Weist @joeweist]

@PhiGamHQ Congratulations, brothers!

[Joe Weist @joeweist]

@davidhogg111 @mtgreenee Outstanding!

[Joe Weist @joeweist]

@mtgreenee You have got to be kidding. Do you see the irony in your comment?

[Joe Weist @joeweist]

Let us realize the arc of the moral compass is long but it bends toward justice. - MLK

[Joe Weist @joeweist]

@elissaben70 Here is to a better 2023. You are not alone.

[The International Headquarters of Phi Gamma Delta @PhiGamHQ]

365 days of Friendship, Knowledge, Service, Morality and Excellence in 2022. Looking forward to 2023 being filled with 175th anniversary celebrations and 365 more days of Building Courageous Leaders!

[Joe Weist @joeweist]

Happy New Year!

[Joe Weist @joeweist]

Thoughts and prayers with the people of the UK and family of the Queen of England. Such a sad thing.

[Joe Weist @joeweist]

@SpyGammaDelta So happy you are back. Can I have one of your feathers for the Archives?

[Joe Weist @joeweist]

Didn't Trump say that only criminals took the 5th Amendment? I guess that was one time he was not lying.

[Joe Weist @joeweist]

Proud of the Rose baseball team. Never gave up.

[Joe Weist @joeweist]

Huge line to vote. Glad to see so many voters in a primary.

[The International Headquarters of Phi Gamma Delta @PhiGamHQ]

Happy Founders Day, Brothers! Today, we celebrate 174 years of our great fraternity.