The Meaning Behind the B's in KirBeBetter

 Do you know the meaning behind the capital B's in KirBeBetter?

Barbara Barban (aka BoBe aka BB aka the B's in KirBeBetter) was my beautiful grandmother.

She played a fundamental role in my life and her passing inspired the KirBeBetter movement.

I used to love seeing her more than I can put into words. When she would come visit from out of town, I would look out the window for hours waiting for her and my grandfather to arrive!

She always used to emphasize to me the importance of giving back to others. She would say, "It is bigger than us, Kirby. We must help others out." After her passing from Alzheimer's, it was very difficult for me to process.

About 1 year after her passing, I founded what would eventually become KirBeBetter and started to get more inspired than ever! I felt like I was constantly challenging myself, getting out of my comfort zone, and things were naturally starting to fall into place. I felt more connected to my grandmother than ever!

After a couple months of making videos, sharing Tip Of Tuesday posts, and visualizing the movement, I realized I wanted to come up with a name for it.

I paid a relative $100 dollars to dream up a name for me because of how creative I saw she was with coming up with captions on Instagram. In 2017 at our family Thanksgiving, I asked her if she had anything in mind. Note: she had been following me and watching all my videos. She said, "I don't think its very good, but KirBeBetter."

It didn't hit me immediately, but after a few minutes I said, "OMG I have been telling myself this every day for around 10 years! 'You have to get better Kirby! You're not good enough! Let's get better!'"

I later found out that I am perfect the way I am, but I'll save that enlightened story for another blog post! Spoiler, though: we each have greatness already inside of us!

After that conversation, I immediately went and changed my name on Instagram. Some people didn't like it at first, but it eventually caught on (there's a lesson to be learned here too: don't let other people's opinions sway what you know in your gut to be right).

All of this to say: after starting the KirBeBetter movement and giving it a name, I felt like this was what my grandmother would have wanted for me to do!

I realized this was my way of honoring her name by helping others and giving back. Even further reassuring me I was on the right path: I began to feel deeply connected to my grandmother again as I continued to grow the KirBeBetter movement. After I had the name for a few months, I was on my way to the gym one day and I asked the Higher Power for sign to show me that she was still here with me. The Higher Power told me to look at my movement's name on my phone, so I did.

A shock of energy and inspiration raced through me as I looked at the two b's and immediately realized she, Barbara Barban, had been here with me the entire time! I started crying tears of inspiration! I then started capitalizing both B’s in the name taking it from Kirbebetter to KirBeBetter and THAT is the meaning behind the B's in KirBeBetter!

I hope I am able to inspire you as much as my grandmother inspired me!

If you would like to help me honor her name and give back to others like she did, please consider purchasing the KirBeBetter Comfort For-A-Cause Tee! I will be donating 33% of the proceeds from the sales of this tee to CureALZ.org where all donations go towards research for preventing, slowing, or reversing Alzheimer's disease!

Health is wealth!

See you at the top with the angels, BoBe!