Settle For Excellence and Pursue your Dreams

Don't settle for anything less than excellence. When I was a kid, on the report cards E stood for excellence and VG was next for very good, G stood for Good, F stood for Fair, and D stood for Deficient. We all strived for E’s. I use to say as a kid, that E stood for Elita. I was a good student, in those days; there were no TV’s, only radios. There were no IPods, DVD players, cellphones or Wi-Fi. We got our excellence from reading and reading we did a lot of. We got our books from the Enoch Pratt Free Library and we valued our library cards and what we could obtain from using them. I would go to the library and take out as many books as I could carry for the six blocks I lived from the library. We loved going there and we made the trip at least once a week. We would love being there. It was not a fancy place, actually a little dark and dreary. They had hard chairs to sit on if you wanted to research something. The research books were not allowed to be taken home. You just read them and wrote down your comments. The kids now days have it so easy. You go right on the computer and you can find anything you want from hundreds of years ago. You type in a word, a name, and pronto, all the information appears. Pursue your dreams and be authentic. Dreams inspire you to become excellent in what you pursue. Pursue whatever you think you can comprehend regardless how long it will take you to obtain the dream to become a reality. I had a friend who came from another country and he was a medical doctor there. He had to take additional study here to obtain his medical license. He had come from a place where he had been held back during some tyrannical events in his life. He loved America and long before it was popular to do so; he wore a USA piece of jewelry in his suit lapel. He found freedom here for himself, his wife and his children. He would lecture before his college classes on the love he had for this county and all the benefits there were for him and us. He attained his dreams and they were surely authentic. I loved him for his spirit and his happiness of being a citizen. His name was Dr. Z. John Levay. He loved to write thank you notes and in those days, they were received by mail, not email, not texting, just plain putting a handwritten note in an envelope, a stamp on it and dropped into a mailbox. I received many from him during my thirty years of being his friend and his student. On one of them he wrote the following because I had written several handwritten notes to the higher ups on his behalf. “Blessed are the peacemakers for they are the children of God. You,Elita are a child of God for what you have done for me.” I treasure that note and framed it and hung it on my wall. If he thought I was a peacemaker, then that was the ultimate compliment someone could bestow on me. Know your priorities and go after them and be proud when you accomplish those tasks. Have a vision for your life if you are young and even if you are a senior, there are still many visions to see and do. Know your strengths and keep them sharp and knowledgeable. My niece had two Greyhound dogs that were very compatible to each other for many years. They had to be at the veterinarian because she was out of town. While there, one attacked the other so viciously that the second dog was injured badly and the vet told her to put the dog to sleep and there was much damage to the victim dog. It is hard for her to understand how the dog turned on the other one, when they had been ‘friends’ for so many years. There is a slogan that you should be a good teammate. The first Greyhound surely was not a good teammate on that day, even though she had been one for years. I guess no one will know what precipitated the malicious attack between two friendly animals. Have a great vision for your life, know your strengths, be a peacemaker, thank those who give you verbal gifts, pursue your dreams regardless of how old you are now, know your priorities, settle for excellence every day, be a teammate when necessary and create unforgettable moments that will live on, with those you love. elita sohmer clayman