Old Advice

I pulled out my Jr. High yearbooks this week and among the advice to "have a good summer" and "stay cool" and "freak out!" I found a couple of gems. It's like some of my teachers saw things in me that I wasn't ready to see in myself yet.

• Think rocks (that's from the earth science teacher)
• Keep Reading, it will never let you down (not like I was likely to ever stop reading!)
• Remember the Oxbow Incident Incident! (Ouch! This was my first real clash with authority. We were assigned a book that I didn't like and that I didn't want to read. So, I tried faking my way through it, not too successfully. Then I tried lying my way through it and got punished, big time-- thanks, Dad. Then I just took a lower grade-- not like I had a choice. I've got to admit-- I faked it through a few more books after that, but none so memorable as The Oxbow Incident. To my credit, I did go back and try to read it as an adult and I still couldn't make it past the second chapter.)
• Remember to set priorities. You have a lot of talent, but you can't do everything at once.

That last one is the clincher. Set priorities. I could have slept a lot more in high school and college if I had listened to his advice. Even now, I still find myself thinking about all the things I want to do when I grow up. I could do this or that or that over there. How to choose? How to choose? Even with writing, I want to do everything. I want to write children's books and devotionals and homeschool methods books and articles and novels. If I could focus in one one or two, I might be able to actually develop some skills. I suppose I'll have the same problem when I'm 97.