I opened my mailbox this morning and there was this message from my son. It said, “Mom, I am really stressed about all this job stuff and etc.” Basically, he was saying, he was afraid of the path looming before him. The path we have all been on when school comes to an end and it is time to pick up the reins of your own life. This unknown path is wrought with stumbling blocks, disappointments, fear and unseen monsters both big and small and he will have to do battle to get to where he wants to go and that is hard for a young man to understand. Success will be waiting but only if he puts in the hard work. He will be stepping into the real world.
While sipping my coffee, I wondered how I should respond. Oh yes, he knows that I love him and that I am there for him and will be there every step of the way because I am his biggest fan but knowing that is still not going to make it easy for him. He is on his own as far as getting on the path and putting one foot in front of the other. There will be disappointments in the form of rejections which will make him want to question his self-worth and times when he will want to throw up his hands and give up. It is all part and parcel of the journey he will have to take. So what do you tell a young man who is looking back at yesterday when life was made easy for him.
I was there when he woke up crying because he was afraid of the boogeyman. I was there when he got his first bloody knee and putting a bandaid made it all alright again. I was there when he needed picking up in the early morning hours after a late night party. I was there for all of life’s big and small events and when a bandaid and being there made it all ok. So here we are in the here and now.
I knew that the leap into the unknown would be his alone. He had training wheels on yesterday but today and in the here and now, he HAS TO GO IT ALONE. I will still be there in the shadows cheering him on and I will always be his biggest fan as I have always been. I will be standing at the finish line waving him on but he has to take this journey alone. I hope the lessons he has learned along the way will push him towards the end goal. Getting a job, standing on his own two feet and taking responsibility for his life is just the beginning, the very beginning of this journey called life.
So I wrote back giving him advice on how to navigate life. Life lessons from my own experiences added to the message but it was clear, he had no choice. He had to get on the path and get moving. ”Do the work, the hard work and YOU WILL GET THERE!”
Bandaids are a thing of the past. Holding his hand is too but being a parent never ends and as he stares into the unknown, I will be there every step of the way cheering him on and that my dear son is the bandaid in another form.
“As you move outside of your comfort zone, what was once the unknown and frightening becomes your new normal.” Robin S. Sharuna
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