by Linda J. Lord

Tonight, I venture into uncharted waters. It is grade eight night at one of the high schools my son is considering attending next year. There are events planned for the potential attendees and events for the parents. When I spoke with the teacher who is organizing the event, she said one of the purposes was to introduce parents to the new world of high school. “Although,” she said sweetly, “It hasn’t been that long since we’ve been in high school…”

Who is she kidding? It has been a LONG time.

Last week, I went to London Ontario by train with my mother and daughter. I was looking forward to the trip. I went to University in London and I wanted to shop with my daughter where I used to go and show her around a bit. We took a taxi to one mall, then decided to take the city bus back downtown to visit another mall I used to frequent before catching the train home. When I asked a very young customer service rep which bus we should take to get to the Eaton Square she looked at me rather strangely. “The Eaton Centre? That’s in Toronto,” she offered.

“Not the Eaton Centre, the Eaton Square.” It was obvious to me, that she had never heard of it. I asked for the bus to the VIA station and that was received much more readily. When we got to what used to be the Eaton Square, I looked around in disbelief. It wasn’t the same. I had been away a long time.

So, I could only imagine how much more my old high school has changed in an even longer absence. Still, I will go and hold my breath. The entrance we were told to use didn’t even exist when I was a student there. Much mommy insecurity flooded over me. If I wasn’t prepared to be able to get inside the building, how could I expect to have adequately prepared my son to navigate its halls on a daily basis?

How could he be expected to make life altering choices, when I myself have only recently got a handle on what I want to do when I grow up?

Facing his future, or mine would be too much, if it weren’t for hope. Hope is the belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one’s life. Hope is the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best. It is what I hang on to when I realize my resources are limited. It is a critical element for believing in what is possible. I have even turned the word hope into an acronym for myself:

H=honesty, O=options, P=perspective and E=experiment.

Honestly, have I done everything I can to prepare my son to the best of my ability?
What options does he have available to him?
Looking forward 10 years, how might my perspective be different than it is today and how will that long view impact decisions made today?
Life requires some experimentation. Nobody gets it right the first time. Sometimes not the tenth or twentieth time. But choices must be made and action must taken. It is the only way to learn and grow.

The H.O.P.E. Chronicles examine everyday life situations. Hope is a powerful ally.

Poem for Hope A Hong Kong Proverb
As long as we have hope,
we have direction,
the energy to move,
and the map to move by.
We have a hundred alternatives,
a thousand paths and infinity of dreams.
Hopeful, we are halfway to where we want to go;
Hopeless, we are lost forever.

Linda J. Lord
Creative Entrepreneur
The voice for H.O.P.E.
519.257.7363
www.lindajlord.com
linda@lindajlord.com

Filed under: The HOPE Chronicles