It's Graduation Day...

At first you're an infant and graduate from being at home with mostly your immediate family who catered to your every single need and your exposure to another little baby here and there to a Pre-school with teachers, classrooms, structures, tasks, where learning starts as a game, at that age it feels like you've crossed over from the mostly unconscious baby world to the 'Real World', you're feeling more confident, challenged, anxious, even stressed with all these new things you're learning, more so nowadays with technology, but even in my days of play-dough, songs, musical instruments, coloring books, dolls, monkey bars, swings and sandboxes I still remember it was of enormous impact, almost like an awakening to our huge potential as human beings.

Throughout the years we keep on graduating celebrating landmarks of knowledge and independence, the more we graduate the more our responsibilities grow for the things we chose to learn so that we can become self sufficient, productive and can create our very own Micro Universe.

We have these ideas that our lives are going to turn out a certain way, I think we get these ideas from things we experience or witness others experience and we walk in that direction but we never really know what we will find on our way there.

I stopped counting my graduations a long time ago, I celebrate my growth with appreciation but this Friday my husband and I have a huge "Graduation Celebration".

We will be moving from what we called our dorm (a small studio apartment with a gorgeous unobstructed view of Mount Rainier and Lake Washington) to a two bedroom two bathroom apartment. I want to spell out bedroom because it seems like such a long time since we've had one.

Our trajectory at this late stage in our lives has been intense and amazing, going from coming back to the US after being gone for years, taking on jobs that we had never done or considered doing before even in our youth, renting a room in someone's apartment, then at a long term hotel with a microwave for a kitchen, to a larger hotel room with a kitchenette, to this gorgeous Studio apartment and now this Friday we are moving to a two bedroom that even has a little backyard with deck, grass and plants.

I understand now that what it takes to get what you want is to keep on walking in the direction of your dreams with gratitude and conviction until once again you can Celebrate Graduation Day!...

Hugs xoxo
@nit@

If G-d brings you to it......

I thought this was a nice story to share with you...it looks long to read, but it truly isn't...not to mention that it is well worth it!

I decided to give it a title since it didn't come with one, and I have no idea who wrote it, a good friend of mine from childhood sent it to me.

I'm just like Rose, I take classes every chance I get, travel as much as I can, anywhere, I'm fearless, daring and thrive on adventure, and if the opportunity arises, I'm there!

Hope you enjoy the story as much as I did, and remember to be like Rose, it's the only way to be!

Hugs,
@nit@
If G-d brings you to it, He will bring you through it!
(Thank you 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 around 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. You have to laugh and find humor every day. 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!

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. 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.

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. G-d promises a safe landing, not a calm passage. If G-d brings you to it, He will bring you through it.

--- We are all like one-winged angels. It is only when we help each other that we can fly.

--Luciano de Crescenzo