Summer school
Summer is almost coming to a close and I’d like to share with you two of the many, many lessons I’ve learned this summer. Both of them were lessons I gained from my son, Donny. First, Donny taught me the value of keeping my word when he showed me the rewards of not chickening out on taking tennis lessons with him. You see, Donny is a very good tennis player. He’s diligent and is a natural. But as the months went by, he became very busy with so many other things that he set aside his tennis. Before summer kicked in though, I reminded him about tennis because I knew that he could get better at it if he continued his lessons. Then, I bribed him a bit by promising to take lessons with him if he agreed. Well, he took me up on my offer and looked forward to our deal. When I realized though that I would be making a fool of myself, considering Donny already has two years of tennis experience, I changed my mind at the last minute and decided not to go with him first. He was quite forgiving when I told him I promised to go with him on his second day. When my husband learned about it, he told me to get dressed and live up to my promise because he didn’t want our son to get discouraged or think that I wasn’t giving importance to my promises. Well, since I didn’t have time to reason out, I quickly got dressed and went with Donny. After that first day of tennis, I felt that I needed a stretcher to be brought home. I ached all over and had to swallow my pride so many times over. Every time I turned to glance at how Donny was doing though, he’d give me a huge, beaming smile that melted all my shame and aches away. It was that memory that made me return to the court with him over and over again. It was also the memory of walking home hand in hand with him and his whispering of sweet words of gratitude to my ear that made me cherish the importance of keeping my word. It also became an added bonus that I ended up liking tennis. Thank you, Donny for letting me realize the value of keeping my word.
The second lesson I learned from Donny is to face my fear. Our whole family found ourselves in Cagayan De Oro for Holy Week after my children and my neighbors’ kids agreed among themselves and convinced their parents that CDO was the place to be for that occasion. Our neighbors, the Jaraulas, happened to be from there and gave us a fantastic time discovering many aspects of CDO that we hadn’t experienced before. We went cruising by the river, went white water rafting, enjoyed the sights in the mountains of Bukidnon, visited relatives, and enjoyed time with friends on their farm, where they raised cattle, pigs, and had a huge plantation of a variety of fruits and vegetables. The most unforgettable experience for me was crossing the Zip Line. We were to go across a canopy while strapped to an overhead wire 150 feet above the ground in order to be pushed back to your starting point via the cable. It’s like a cable car at full speed but in this case, there was no car. It was just you, the cable and the 150-foot drop! I almost fainted while crossing the canopy to reach the other side so I decided to head back to our starting point. Because of that, Donny and his friend Raffy also backed out. Everybody else was raving about their experience, except for the three of us who were scared to go for it. I couldn’t sleep that night because I knew I was responsible for the two boys backing out. I felt that if I had had enough courage, they wouldn’t have had second thoughts about their ability to enjoy a death-defying stunt, which everybody else enjoyed, including my youngest son Benjamin who is only five years old! So, I snapped out of my fear, took a deep breath, and decided to tell the boys that I was scared to death but that I was willing to try the Zip Line again if they accompanied me. They excitedly agreed and we managed to pull it off together. It was a tremendous experience overcoming our fear. We also realized that together, we could be strong. Now, we can look back and celebrate the fact that the only thing we should fear is fear itself.
Thank you, Donny, for those lessons learned this summer!
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E-mail author at mommytalk@businessworks.com.ph.
