It’s that time of year… graduation. I love getting all the beautiful announcements in the mail. Unlike those sent in 1982, a standard printed card from Jostens, these announcements are colorful and filled with pictures of hopeful, shining faces. Graduates of 2015!
I know that face. I was just like them. I thought graduating meant that I was now an adult. I knew everything and now had the freedom to go out into the world and change it. I soon found out the world was slow to change and accept my ideas but then again, I didn’t know everything did I?
I look back at pictures from graduation day and I think, “Wow was I young!” Some part of me wishes I could tell them some of the things I didn’t know in 1982 that have helped me over the last 32 years but then I realize, I’m old. I know that I will sound just like the old people who tried to give me advice.
But then again, those “old” people didn’t have a column now did they? Maybe if I cleverly write my words of advice here they will cut them out and carry them around in their purses and wallets until one day they will read what this “old” lady had to say…so it better be good, huh.
You are not smarter than your mother
I always thought that I was smarter than my mom until I had my first child. Then she became the Albert Einstein of my world. Trust me, moms know more than you think they know but sometimes they have to bite their tongues and hold back for your own good. If you want a small glimpse into a mom’s world all you have to do is ask…she has a lot to say.
Communication is more about listening than talking
I know you have big ideas and can’t wait to share them with the world but you have to listen before you jump in and try to change everything. This was a hard lesson I learned while on a mission trip to Africa. Many people thought they knew better and what was best for the people of the village but many ideas were wrong and misguided. Once we listened to the people we knew better how we could really help.
If you can’t make it better, don’t make it worse
This is huge. If you are so inclined to get a tattoo, this should be considered at the top of your list. The “it” in this statement can be many things…a friendship, a marriage, a fight or a conversation. If you make it your job in life to only make a situation better, not worse, you will see a huge difference in the level of drama you expose yourself to.
Buy a Ten Year Journal and use it
There will be a time in your life when you are tired and frustrated and discouraged. Some of you will want to give up and quit. Don’t you do it! Your family will never recover. You matter to so many people. I believe every life has a ripple effect that you don’t even know how far it reaches. Document a line a day and see how fast the years go by…write down your thoughts and plans and dreams. When you need a boost just peruse your journal and see how far you have come in life…compare this year to last year.
Most of all enjoy this time. Graduation is a great send off in life. You are the hope for our future and take it from me, an old lady: I want only the best for each and every one of you!
Follow your passion, stay
true to yourself, never
follow someone else’s path
unless you’re in the woods
and you’re lost and you see
a path then by all means
you should follow that.
Ellen DeGeneres
Taste of Home columnist Sandy (Anderson) Holthaus lives on a farm in South Haven, MN with her husband, Michael, and their children Zoe, Jack and Ben. Her heart remains on the North Shore where she grew up with her parents, Art and LaVonne Anderson of Schroeder. She enjoys writing about her childhood and mixes memories with delicious helpings of homestyle recipes.
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