Day 25: Finish what you start.
Little did I realize what a project this 25 lessons would end up being. My mom has taught me hundreds of things, 25 should have been easy, but it’s amazing how they tend to overlap. Also, as soon as I sat down to write, everything seemed to fly from my brain.
Not a pretty picture–all those thoughts circling above me like bats where I couldn’t reach them.
Someday perhaps I’ll have to write about my fun adventures with bats, but not today. Today I’m going to talk about the importance of finishing what we start. When I was in high school, I can’t remember if it was my senior or junior year, I was on the Academic Decathlon team, which met every morning for what seemed like all year, but was probably only two or three months while we crammed for the meets. Or should I say, meet, since we never progressed past our one competition with Delta to get to regionals.
Anyway, going to school an hour early for decathlon, staying an hour late for yearbook (It was eighth-hour day then, now I understand it’s a regular class during school hours. Lucky ducks.) Then there was work and the school, and the dozen other things that keep a high schooler busy. By the time I reached the end of the training I was ready to drop from exhaustion, and totally ready to quit, but my mom talked me out of it. I was closer to the end than I knew and it ended up being a great experience for me–I even brought home a few medals. (Apparently I’m an economics genius or a really good guesser, because there was really no reason I should have placed in that subject BOTH years, despite knowing nothing about it.)
My mom’s support through my years of writing with no results, my parents’ willingness to work around my schedule so I can fulfill my dreams, and her never-ending belief that I can accomplish my goals have been so great. She probably going to tell me that my memory is faulty, again, but hey, it’s my memory, and the fact that she may remember a few of the things I’ve recounted here differently doesn’t make them any less real. And no, I haven’t been improving the truth.
I love you, Mom!