Fruit of the harvest

Its hard when raising your kids to really see if the values you are trying to instill in them are taking root.  Often times you are just too close/in the noise to see clearly.  As your kids get older, you migrate to a state of awareness that you've done all you can do to help shape and guide and now its time for them to leave the nest and fly.  Meanwhile you'll be back home praying that they will get through the hard things life is inevitably going to throw at them.  As Isaac prepares in his final semester of high school to launch into the world, I got a tiny, sweet gift this week that helped me with the nest-leaving worries and turned into, "yeah, he's got this."

I had put all of the responsibility for registering for college, FAFSA submittal, scholarship applications fully into Isaac's capable hands.  One of the forms that had come from ISU before Christmas was an Honors application.  I made sure Isaac had read the letter, asked him if he understood what he needed to do and when the due date was and left him to it.  I would ping him every few weeks to see how his progress was going.  "I'm gonna work on it this weekend" was the refrain for... 2 months?  I had honestly assumed he was just not going to apply, when I was pleasantly surprised by an email in my inbox AND a text from Isaac that said, "I finished my first essay for the honors application and sent to your email, can you take a look and let me know what you think?"

Here's the email that inspired my moment of, "hmm, maybe I didn't do this parenting thing half-bad after all."

Writing Sample

Please write two essays of no more than 500 words each, one from each section. We will evaluate your essay on original thought, organization, and quality of writing.*

Section 1

A. Select a single book, film or video, or game that you think everyone in your generation should read, see, or play. Why do you think so? 

B. In your view, is it better to pursue a goal vigorously but make mistakes, or to avoid errors but achieve less or take longer to reach the goal? Explain.

I believe that the fear of mistakes holds so many people back from accomplishing their goals and that life is far too short to be afraid of what missteps could occur on your path to accomplishment. I would rather look back on what I did wrong on my way to success than to still be on the path worrying about what I might do wrong in the future.

Recently I took a metalworking class through my high school, and in that class we worked for about 2 months on a single project of our choosing. I knew I could take it slow and make something simple but precise such as a chair or a table, but I felt that doing so would not be pushing myself as much as I could. Instead, I made all 32 pieces of a chess set, as well as the board to play upon. While a chess set may indeed be a smaller project in size compared to a bench or table, to actually machine all 32 pieces as well as the board was far more labor intensive. With the limited time frame of the class, I barely had time to finish, and indeed the quality of the individual pieces suffered for it.

I do not regret the mistakes I made in the fabrication of my chess set, instead I view them as a testament to the work required to complete it. I won't pretend to be a gifted machinist, but I can look upon what I created with pride at what was accomplished. The flaws left by my vigorous pursuit of its completion are not mistakes, for I learned from them.