Going places

Mama used to tell this story about how I came home from first grade in hysterics. The teacher said we were going to read the next day and I was horrified. How was I supposed to read? I didn’t know how.

I insisted Mama teach me that very night so I’d be ready. She tried to convince me the teacher meant we would begin learning to read. When Daddy got home from work, he tried to explain that reading and writing weren’t skills I could attain overnight. What finally calmed me down was the phone call to Miss Brewer, my teacher.

That phone call took a lot of the pressure off. I met the challenge. I got past the fear that I wouldn’t be able to do it. Before the year ended, I knew how to read and write.

Tonight, I ordered a new copy of “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” by Dr. Seuss.

Perspective is almost everything.

Attitude is nearly, almost everything.

But life is always life.

“So…
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O’Shea,
you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!”

Click here to read the whole poem. You’ll be glad you did. Dr. Seuss was a wise man who sometimes knew just what to say to kids of all ages.