Graduation Time

Before I started the Ro’s Words of Encouragement blog last November, I sent out my Weekend Words posts through e-mail to a group of friends, co-workers and clients. I still send those e-mails every Friday, but since starting the blog I also post the Weekend Words here. I am trying to go back through my older Weekend Words posts, the ones that were written before the blog existed, and share them with you. So although the below post is in the Weekend Words category, it is not this week’s official Weekend Words post; that will come out tomorrow. The below Weekend Words was originally published via e-mail on April 23, 2010:

 

Graduation Time

My daughter Grace is graduating from the University of Maryland next month. She’s graduating in 3 years (about half the time it took me to graduate from Virginia Tech) with a 3.9 GPA. Needless to say, I couldn’t be prouder of her!

Being an ex-athlete, I often get asked whether I wish I had a son instead of a daughter. The answer is an easy no for me. Having a daughter like Grace has taught me so much. She always favored the arts over sports. She’s got a great singing voice, and played saxophone in her high school jazz band and violin in the orchestra. Through attending her concerts and talking with her about the arts, I have been exposed to a whole different world from the sports-centered one I grew up in, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Having a daughter has also taught me how to get in touch with my sensitive side, and that it’s OK to tell someone that you love them. Her keen sense of humor regarding my many faults has taught me to laugh at myself. Her uncanny ability to knock me off my high horse when I get too full of myself has kept me humble. I probably would never have learned these important lessons without her in my life.

Below I have included a quote from General Douglas MacArthur. If you are lucky enough to have a son or daughter in your life, tell them you love them and how proud you are of them.

 

Build me a son, O Lord

who will be strong enough to know when he is weak,

and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid;

one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat,

and humble and gentle in victory.

 

Build me a son whose wishbone will not be

where his backbone should be;

a son who will know Thee –

and that to know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge.

 

Lead him not, I pray, in the path of ease and comfort,

but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge.

Here, let him learn to stand up in the storm;

here let him learn compassion for those who fall.

 

Build me a son whose heart will be clear,

whose goals will be high;

a son who will master himself

before he seeks to master other men;

 

one who will learn to laugh,  yet never forget how to weep;

one who will reach into the future, yet never forgive the past.

 

And after all these things are his, add, I pray,

enough of a sense of humor so that he may always be serious,

yet never take himself too seriously.

 

Give him humility, so that he may always remember

the simplicity of true greatness,

the open mind of true wisdom,

the meekness of true strength.

 

Then I, his father, will dare to whisper,

“I have not lived in vain.”

 

–General Douglas MacArthur