So the other day I was talking about the parallels between myself and a distant cousin who met with a very untimely end over the course of what was a difficult path in life. If you didn’t see it, it’s here.
Now, in that post I mentioned a family friend and as fate would have it, she had asked me to drive her out to JFK as she is taking a trip to visit her granddaughter who is studying in Spain. Now, she’s staunchly Democratic, so that’s one issue and the other is that as time goes on she gets more set in her ways but some people in this world get credit no matter what and she’s one of them. I know she can be very particular but that’s offset by the many ways she has gone out of her way for me and truthfully I love her for that.
I’m usually on BPT even though I fight it and she wanted to be out at the airport an ungodly four hours before her flight which would have meant driving out at the height of rush hour. Originally I was supposed to drive her out on Tuesday afternoon but Thursday I was calling her telling her she should think about changing her plans and Friday I called again telling her she DEFINITELY should think about changing plans after I had spent about an hour on the phone with the airlines going over options for her before I called (I had her itinerary and wanted to call knowing what the options were).
She did change said plans and off we were on Monday afternoon. She was pissed because I showed up later than she wanted to but she hadn’t given me a specific time only a time she wanted to be at the airport. The drive for the most part was pretty uneventful as I still have ‘the knowledge’ of the tri-state area from my years driving and we made it out to the airport not at the exact time she wanted to be there but not too much later.
Anyway, as is usually the case the ride was punctuated by conversation and we talked about her daughter of course who is the mom in the equation and who also happens to be my first girlfriend of sorts.
And really I have to say, her daughter is just about as incredible a person as there could be. She’s smart and driven and really a terrific person. Her older sister passed away about 10 years back and I knew them both and her older sister was something too.
I can look back on some really fond memories with both of those women...
Anyway, I’m driving my friend out there and were talking about life in general and she genuinely wants good things for me (which is one of the reasons I hold her in such high regard as it seems folks like that are harder and harder to come by in life). She was talking about her daughter and I wholeheartedly conceded I thought her daughter had accomplished so very much and by that measure I felt sorely lacking.
And pointedly she said, ‘Considering where you started out, you’ve done really well.’
You know, I know she’s right but that’s not good enough.
It’s easy to say, oh well... that’s where I started out so I should be happy where I’ve gotten to but, a part of me knows that no matter what you can’t be a success by making excuses. I know I make excuses for myself and it doesn’t help me.
It doesn’t help any of us really when you think about the excuses we make for ourselves as people. Those excuses are the things that stand in the way of us. The things that keep us from being everything we can be, from tapping into the potential inside each of us. The fact that we can’t give up or settle.
So, I can acknowledge it, respect it and be glad someone else knows it but embracing it would be a bad thing and the question for all of us is are you okay with embracing the status quo or are you more interested in all the possibilities that are out there for you in the big wide world?
Now, in that post I mentioned a family friend and as fate would have it, she had asked me to drive her out to JFK as she is taking a trip to visit her granddaughter who is studying in Spain. Now, she’s staunchly Democratic, so that’s one issue and the other is that as time goes on she gets more set in her ways but some people in this world get credit no matter what and she’s one of them. I know she can be very particular but that’s offset by the many ways she has gone out of her way for me and truthfully I love her for that.
I’m usually on BPT even though I fight it and she wanted to be out at the airport an ungodly four hours before her flight which would have meant driving out at the height of rush hour. Originally I was supposed to drive her out on Tuesday afternoon but Thursday I was calling her telling her she should think about changing her plans and Friday I called again telling her she DEFINITELY should think about changing plans after I had spent about an hour on the phone with the airlines going over options for her before I called (I had her itinerary and wanted to call knowing what the options were).
She did change said plans and off we were on Monday afternoon. She was pissed because I showed up later than she wanted to but she hadn’t given me a specific time only a time she wanted to be at the airport. The drive for the most part was pretty uneventful as I still have ‘the knowledge’ of the tri-state area from my years driving and we made it out to the airport not at the exact time she wanted to be there but not too much later.
Anyway, as is usually the case the ride was punctuated by conversation and we talked about her daughter of course who is the mom in the equation and who also happens to be my first girlfriend of sorts.
And really I have to say, her daughter is just about as incredible a person as there could be. She’s smart and driven and really a terrific person. Her older sister passed away about 10 years back and I knew them both and her older sister was something too.
I can look back on some really fond memories with both of those women...
Anyway, I’m driving my friend out there and were talking about life in general and she genuinely wants good things for me (which is one of the reasons I hold her in such high regard as it seems folks like that are harder and harder to come by in life). She was talking about her daughter and I wholeheartedly conceded I thought her daughter had accomplished so very much and by that measure I felt sorely lacking.
And pointedly she said, ‘Considering where you started out, you’ve done really well.’
You know, I know she’s right but that’s not good enough.
It’s easy to say, oh well... that’s where I started out so I should be happy where I’ve gotten to but, a part of me knows that no matter what you can’t be a success by making excuses. I know I make excuses for myself and it doesn’t help me.
It doesn’t help any of us really when you think about the excuses we make for ourselves as people. Those excuses are the things that stand in the way of us. The things that keep us from being everything we can be, from tapping into the potential inside each of us. The fact that we can’t give up or settle.
So, I can acknowledge it, respect it and be glad someone else knows it but embracing it would be a bad thing and the question for all of us is are you okay with embracing the status quo or are you more interested in all the possibilities that are out there for you in the big wide world?
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