The
College Student
The first day of school
our professor introduced himself and
challenged
us to get to know someone we didn't already know. I stood
up
to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder.
I turned around to find a
wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me
with
a smile that lit up her entire being.
She said, 'Hi handsome. My
name is Rose. I'm eighty-seven years old.
Can I give you a hug?'
I laughed and
enthusiastically responded, 'Of course you may!' and
she
gave me a giant squeeze.
'Why are you in college at
such a young, innocent age?' I asked.
She jokingly replied, 'I'm
here to meet a rich husband, get married,
and
have a couple of kids...'
'No seriously,' I asked. I
was curious what may have motivated her to
be
taking on this challenge at her age.
'I always dreamed of
having a college education and now I'm getting
one!'
she told me.
After class we walked to
the student union building and shared a
chocolate
milkshake.
We became instant friends.
Every day for the next three months we
would
leave class together and talk nonstop. I was always
mesmerized
listening
to this 'time machine' as she shared her wisdom and
experience
with me.
Over the course of the
year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily
made
friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she revealed
in
the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was
living
it up.
At the end of the semester
we invited Rose to speak at our football
banquet.
I'll never forget what she taught us. She was introduced and
stepped
up to the podium. As she began to deliver her prepared
speech,
she dropped her three by five cards on the floor.
Frustrated and a little
embarrassed she leaned into the microphone
and
simply said, 'I'm sorry I'm so jittery. I gave up beer for Lent
and
this whiskey is killing me! I'll never get my speech back in
order
so let me just tell you what I know.'
As we laughed she cleared
her throat and began, '! We do not stop
playing
because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing.
There are only four
secrets to staying young, being happy, and
achieving
success. You have to laugh and find humour every day.
You've
got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die.
We have so many people
walking around who are dead and don't even
know
it!
There is a huge difference
between growing older and growing up.
If you are nineteen years
old and lie in bed for one full year and
don't
do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old. If I
am
eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do
anything
I will turn eighty-eight.
Anybody can grow older.
That doesn't take any talent or ability.
The
idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity in change. Have no
regrets.
The elderly usually don't
have regrets for what we did, but rather
for
things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those
with
regrets.'
She concluded her speech
by courageously singing 'The Rose.'
She challenged each of us
to study the lyrics and live them out in
our
daily lives. At the year's end Rose finished the college degree
she
had begun all those years ago.
One week after graduation
Rose died peacefully in her sleep.
Over two thousand college
students attended her funeral in tribute to
the
wonderful woman who taught by example that it's never too late to
be
all you can possibly be.
When you finish reading
this, please send this peaceful word of
advice
to your friends and family, they'll really enjoy it!
These words have been
passed along in loving memory of ROSE.
REMEMBER, GROWING OLDER IS
MANDATORY. GROWING UP IS OPTIONAL. < I> We
make
a Living by what we get, We make a Life by what we give.
God promises a safe
landing, not a calm passage. If God brings you to
it,
He will bring you through it.
'Good friends are like
stars..........You don't always see them, but
you
know they are always there.'