“It is necessary for a man to go away by himself, to sit on a rock and to ask, ‘Who am I, where have I been and where am I going?’” –Carl Sandburg
My son is about to graduate from high school. So the question is, “Who is he?”
Is he where he imagined himself to be at this point in his life? When he would think about what his life would be like when his formal educations years ended is he the person he thought he would be?
When I put myself into his shoes I can imagine that in his particular life circumstance these few questions might crop up in his mind quite often. Who is he? I can answer that question as his mom but my answer may not necessarily be the answer he would give because it is from only my perspective. He is iron willed and that is good and bad. He is loving, kind (when he wants to be), strong of body and will (needs a bit of polishing in the spirit and mind part), and he is goofy.
Where has he been?
He has been growing up in body and will and has an eternal way to go in spirit and mind. My prayer is that he will have enough years ahead of him to do all the spiritual growing that he needs. He has been learning life lessons that will help him get up each morning and be the hero of his days. He has been watching his brother and sister learn and grow and evolve and has taken life lessons from them that have so far shaped his perspective. He has been broken, doubted, loved, celebrated, admired, cast aside, and championed. Not bad so far…..
Where is he going?
No one knows, not even him. He is not, so far, taking the college route and giving himself the chance to figure it all out in the next 4 years. He is ready to just dive in and see what he can see. I hope to see him go at his own pace and go with love and honesty and courage and authenticity although his authenticity is in constant flux until he grounds himself in what he knows for sure about himself. He grew up with the ethos to always be going forward and paying it forward as he goes. If you were to really ask him where he is going he wouldn’t have an answer. His “going” is only as far as the next day right now; there is no future. Some might say that is cool, he is living in the present with no attachment to the past or the future. I hope it is cool. He might just have the right of it as a representative of his generation. Maybe it’s a good thing not to have it all figured out right now but to let life teach its lessons as you go.
How do you answer these 3 questions?
What would you do differently if you could go back in time?
When you have an answer to any one of these 3 questions, what happens to your life in the answer?
Parenting viewpoints from parents in the trenches, because parenting doesn’t come with a manual. In addition to