Have An Unbelievable Week

A friend of mine posts every day very nice sayings to encourage everyone to do things, be active and not to sit around and be lonely. This is one she quoted today “Don’t wait until you’ve reached your goal to be proud of yourself. Be proud of every step you take toward reaching that goal.” This is an excellent saying that I have always believed in. When we first started to ballroom dance in November 1977, I would see people taking lessons when we did or also on Saturday nights dancing when we went to a social dance. Some of them were such perfect and fine dancers that you thought to yourself, will I ever be like them? Eventually with hard work and many lessons, we did become as dedicated and competent as they were that first year, when we doubted we could be that way too.

This applies to everything we attempt in life, all of us. When you first go to a new job, you think I will never be as good as the person who performed this job before me.Then one day; you look at yourself and think I am better than he was. I felt that way at age eighteen when I went to my job, was trained on the first day for eight hours and then she left to get married the next day and never to come back again. When I was going home that night, the employer lived near my home, so he took me home and I told him, I did not think I would be coming back in two days on Monday. He said to me, “you will be better than Judy ever was.” How did he know that, he was just trying to keep me on because they desperately needed someone for the work to go on. So I naively believed him, came back that Monday and stayed for eight years and rose to an executive position alongside of him, the CEO. I did become better than her, and it was nice of him to encourage me and I was young and believed him and it all happened. Of course, it took a few months and then the years rolled by.

So I was proud of myself long before I reached the top goal and because of that and staying and believing him and in myself, I met my husband and have my life as it is today, over fifty-seven years of marriage and almost two and half years of courting and have children, a home, grandchildren and a pretty good life. I persevered and hung on even though I did not get good training for a new position in the eight hours; she rushed through everything to tell me. There were no computers to rely on yet in those days of 1952-1960.I met my husband through an employee working there who introduced me to his friend who I did not like; he gave my phone number (no online or computer dating then) to Jerry and the rest is marriage and children history.

A friend of mine had the same thing happen to her. She took a summer job at a local hospital here because she wanted to be a physician and she wanted to try out some medical training for a few months. During that time, she met a young doctor who was fifteen years older than her and they connected and they married while she was in medical school and they had a wonderful life for twenty-five years, until he passed away due to a medical problem which went wrong due to some hospital errors.

She still had a fabulous life for that time and two children and now two grandchildren. Unfortunately, he passed on too young and that was and is sad. She survived and raised her children and one is a mom herself and she met her husband because her father switched jobs and they moved from the home location to another city, when her dad got this better position. Therefore, she went to college there in the new state and met her husband in college, when she was a freshman and he was a senior and he was a dormitory monitor or whatever they are called and he met her in that building ,where she was assigned for her first year’s rooming.

So fate sometimes does play a part in our life, where we are at that moment and all of us mentioned here did not wait until the goal was reached; and we were proud of ourselves during the goal reaching event.

Another saying, short as it is, it is excellent. “Be strong, live life.” Sometimes, we have to be strong to really live and love life, especially when things may be going wrong for a while.

They say “that to be happy, you just have to forget what’s gone and appreciate what still remains and look forward to the good that is coming next our way.”

As my good dancing friend in Steilacoom, Washington State says at the end of his emails to me “have an unbelievable week, I will.” His name is Steven Behr and I try to live by his words every day.

You do the same, have an unbelievable week.