A pick me up

Below is an email I just sent to our oldest grandchild:

I know you are disappointed not to get an acceptance letter from your first choice of high schools.

I also know you’re going to be okay because of the good attitude you take to life. You have a habit of staying open to good possibilities and not letting adversity keep you down too long. You are good at rationalizing things.

I’m confident you’ll be okay because I’ve been around a long time and have known some low lows, which means I’m drawing on personal experience.

My first huge disappointment I recall was when our high school football team my senior year ended the season with a 7-7 tie. After glorious junior and senior years, it all ended in a bowl game when we didn’t play well enough to win. Our football careers ended in a whimper instead of a bang. We couldn’t hold our heads high for days. Because we knew we could have done better, it really hurt.

A huge disappointment came in my 20s. I appeared before a committee, expecting them to approve me for a career I thought I wanted. I gave a less than stellar performance. They turned me down. I was embarrassed to tell people I had failed. For weeks, I worried about what I would do next. Sometimes you lose.

Sometimes in life you tie, sometimes you lose big and sometimes you win big. My biggest win was falling in love with an extraordinary girl and, eventually, on bended knee, asking her to marry me, and she gave an enthusiastic “Yes!” All the stars and planets aligned just right that night.

Fourteen years ago you made that girl a grandmother. We’re proud of our first grandchild. You are resilient. You’ll do okay.