Many times while you are finding your way in the world someone will ask you “what do you what to be when you grow up?” Seldom do you really know the answer. Some have an occupation they keep in their back pocket so they can appear confident and focused but even those people don’t usually know the answer. Others are utterly convinced that they want to be Jacques Cousteau when they matriculate only to be blindsided by the fact that there already is a Jacques Cousteau and you have to be someone else. As a parent you don’t usually ask your own kids that question directly, you know that they don’t know. Let me draw an analogy;
Your kid is a young driver in an icy parking lot. They have never driven on ice before, the cars don’t seem to go where you point them. There are other kids in the lot
, they range from apathetic to hell bent for leather. Some really want out, some are checking out the sound system but most are trying to find the exit with their name on it. They can’t use someone else’s exit, they have to find their own. Several parents are standing around the edge of the parking lot, many are yelling instructions to their kid. They can’t see the exit either but over there looks like a good spot. One guy has a megaphone. More than a few have their face in their hands, they remember trying to get out of the parking lot years ago. There are collisions, tears and the kid with the megaphone dad has his tires spinning so fast if they ever find dry pavement . . . well . . . we don’t know what will happen but we don’t want to be anywhere nearby when it does.
Some kids start making it out their exit. If you follow their tracks from where they started to where they left they often look like a handwriting exercise in the snow and ice. One girl’s car has more dents then smooth spots but she is wearing her seatbelt and smiling, she made it to her exit. None of the mishaps were really that serious even if they seemed so at the time. Most of them make it one way or another. The mom and dads look at each other with relief and say something like “I knew they would make it she takes after me”. They look at the people who are left, they see the kid reclined in the drivers seat with the engine off and the radio blaring and his mom screaming something trying to get his attention, they do not pass judgment, the same thought passes both their minds at the same time, “there but for the grace of God go I”
It’s not really over, they will end up in other parking lots sooner or later but for now it’s touchdowns for parent and child alike. 10 years from now the kids will look back and think, “yeah, I made it no problem, it wasn’t that big a deal”. 10 years after that they will be breaking out in a cold sweat, looking for their megaphone and be almost convinced that kids today may never make it out of the parking lot.
Sarah cleared the parking lot this week. She got the whole college thing under control after a couple of years, saw her exit and fishtailed her car through it by getting hired by the company where she did her internship, grinding out a self-study course, and acing all 4 parts of the Certified Public Accountant exam the first time through. No megaphone required. TOUCHDOWN!
Here is Sarah in her winner/princess/CPA sash, sporting her new victory lap purse, she left her tiara at home