YOU MATTER

I hear of a lot of angst and woes from my friends, up close and from young struggling folks online. Heartrending stories which tug at my heartstrings -- It’s in not getting what they want no matter how hard they try. It’s giving up the ship even when it’s still got some fight in it. Oh I can surely understand that. But is it enough to make you want to beat your chest or bonk your head in utter exasperation just because you didn’t make it? Just because you think that you made a mistake, a big one.. that you are a mistake too? Just because your options have disappeared with the last failure, that there’s none left to pursue?

I don’t buy that, sorry. You know why? Because I know that all through my years there were many dreams that I didn’t get too, didn’t even get close, just like you. But I have learned this -- it’s not always that a person gets his dreams. Sometimes in an odd and crazy way one gets waylaid.. or asked to make a detour.. or simply put - made to stop dead in his tracks. And yes, coming to a dead-end does seem like the end of the world to most of us.

But it’s not.

The end of the world is when you and the world cease to exist. That’s the end. And until that day comes -- we got work to do. That means making something of ourselves in whatever way we can, giving life our best shot, and using the gifts God blessed us with – for ourselves and for others too. (Remember the world isn’t all about you, there are others here with us too and we all stand connected by God’s design). Go ahead and dream, that’s what and where things begin – from a dream. Even if some of it may fizzle out, that’s okay… just as long as you are still in there strong and determined to work it out. Same dreams or new dreams it doesn’t matter. It’s YOU that matters. Make that count.
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I'd rather be a 'could-be’
if I cannot be an ‘are’;
because a ‘could-be’ is a maybe
who is reaching for a star.
I'd rather be a ‘has-been‘
than a ‘might-have-been’, by far;
for a ‘might-have-been’ has never ‘been’,
but a ‘has’ was once an ‘are’.
-- Milton Berle

(The picture above of my daughter was taken by photographer-friend Larry Concepcion.)