A story: About our
own attitude
One of the emails stories I had received some time ago and wanted to share with
you.
Subject: Hi handsome, my name is Rose.
An
oldie, but a goodie!!!!
The first day of school our professor introduced him,
and challenged us to get to know someone we didn’t already know. I stood up to
look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder.
I turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady
beaming up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being.
She said, ‘Hi handsome. My name is Rose. I’m
eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug?’
I laughed and enthusiastically responded; ‘Of course you
may!’ and she gave me a giant squeeze.
‘Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?’
I asked.
She jokingly replied, “I’m here to meet a rich husband,
get married, and have a couple of kids…..’
‘No seriously,’ I asked. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking
on this challenge at her age. ‘I always dreamed of having a college education
and now I’m getting one!’ she told me.
After class we walked to the student union building and
shared a chocolate milkshake. We became instant friends. Every day for the next
three months, we would leave class together and talk nonstop.
I was always mesmerized listening to this ‘time machine’ as she shared her
wisdom and experience with me.
Over the course of the year, Rose became campus icon and
she easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she
reveled in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was
living it up.
At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at
our football banquet. I’ll never forget what she taught us. She was introduced
and stepped up to the podium. As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she
dropped her three by five cards on the floor.
Frustrated and little embarrassed she leaned into the
microphone and simply said, ‘I’m sorry I’m so jittery. I gave up beer for Lent
and this whiskey is killing me! I’ll never get my speech back in order so let
me just tell you what I know.’
As we laughed she cleared her throat and began, ‘we do
not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing.
There are only four secrets to staying young, being
happy and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor every day. You’ve
got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die.
We have so many people walking around who are dead and
don’t even know it!
There is a huge difference between growing older and
growing up.
If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one
full year and don’t do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old. If
I am eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do anything I
will turn eighty-eight.
Anybody can grow older. That doesn’t take any talent or
ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity in change. Have
no regrets.
The elderly usually don’t have regrets for what we did,
but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those
with regrets.’
She concluded her speech by courageously singing ‘The
Rose.’
She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live
them out in our daily lives. At the year’s end Rose finished the college degree
she had begun all those months ago.
One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her
sleep.
Over two thousand college students attended her funeral
in tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example that it’s never too
late to be all you can possibly be.
When you finish reading this, please send this peaceful
word of advice to your family and friends, they’ll really enjoy it!
REMEMBER, GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY. GROWING UP IS
OPTIONAL. We all make a living by what we get. We make Life by what we give.
God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage. If God
brings you to it, He will bring you through it.
‘Good friends are like stars…………. ……You don’t always see
them, but you know they are always there.’
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