Out There to Find

"Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it
Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth

But trust me on the sunscreen."

Wear Sunscreen, Mary Schmich (1997)

 

 The stentorian tones of a teacher, reading the names of the graduates as they filed past to receive their high school diploma, announced the name we had awaited since... Well, 2005.

Cole Matthew Greer.

We cheered, we shed a little tear. It was his moment, the culmination of a successful high school experience. He had been one of the many COVID freshmen, whose studies were interrupted just as he was finding a rhythm. He swam, and spent his senior year as a team co-captain and state tournament finalist. He was diligent, dependable, a leader.

One might tell such a man that his grandmother and I are proud, and we are. Very. One might dispense advice, hard won over the decades of lives unevenly lived. But, it is better to leave someone who has accomplished a great feat with a wish, rather than a caution.

To quote a song from a movie of our young adulthood - your life is out there to find. We hope that you will be as lucky as we are, to sit in an auditorium somewhere, beside the children you love and admire for the lives they have built, to celebrate the accomplishments of a grandchild of the caliber of yourself.

We love you.