Perseverance Pays

The Greatest Gift Lies In Seeing Who They Are Instead of Who You Want Them To Be

At 8:47 p.m., I received a text message from my son.The money shot featured above was the whole message. Further explanation was not necessary. The picture was truly worth a thousand or more words and one hundred and eighty bucks.

It tells the story of a lifetime of passion and grit. A case study of how to live your dreams,starring a young man, age 15.

Want to hear??? Huh?Huh? Want to? Want to?

Cuz I really want to share.

N first went fishing somewhere between the age of two and three. His dad took him over to the pond at a local park with a styrofoam container of earthworms and a purple ‘Lil Rhino fishing pole. He was hooked.

There are twelve years of fishing stories between that first fishing trip and the cash winnings you see pictured above. Maybe a story for each one of those one hundred and eighty dollars. Stories of kayaks, Christmas gifts, boat surprises, YouTube channels, plastic lures made on our gas grill and taxidermy. There just might be enough stories to fill an entire book. I might write that book someday, but for today, I summarize.

The 18 inch, large mouth bass was a second place finisher, earning N his first tournament win. After twenty plus outings at fifteen dollars a try, sweet success finally called. He’s on the board. He told me it was the best day of his entire year, which is saying something. It happened on September 14th.

The thing is, neither his father nor I at his birth thought: wouldn’t it be nice if he was obsessed with fishing? It would be so lovely if we could talk about fish, lures, lakes, rivers, rods, boats, homework (just kidding), tournaments and ALL things fishing, non-stop, ad nauseam.

You see, his dad might have preferred a speed skating, NFL tight end with an engineering degree.

I would have basked in the presence of a kind, out going volunteering sort, always offering to lend a hand, while maintaining stellar grades and a clean room.

Neither of our “visions” are fully coming to pass. He is a good student, a “kind of” kind person for a teenage boy and he does speed skate and play football on an average level.

But, he is who HE is and we would not want it any other way.

I am glad that we have both been able to see into his soul. I am glad that our grumbling has not deterred him from his love and passion. I am glad we bought a boat and that his dad turns his work life on end to make it home in time for the Wednesday tournaments.

I hope someday he will make a living and a life doing what he loves.

And I hope, if he has children one day, he will give them the gift of recognizing who they are.