Dear Childhood,
It's May 29, 2016 and I'm here to tell you that you are now 20 years old and attending an amazing school where you will meet amazing people and maybe the "one". But I just wanted to tell you that growing up, you learn a lot of lessons besides 2+2 is 4, winning isn't everything, how the heart "loves", you'll be an underdog sometimes, say please and thank you, and whatever else life may throw at you. Your parents will teach you honesty, truth, compassion, kindness and how to care for people. Also, they will encourage you to take risks, to boldly go. They will teach you that the greatest danger in life is not taking the adventure. In school, you're going to be given a lesson and then given a test with sometimes no explanations.
You are going to be in sports. Going through your career in football, you will always be asked why play football if you never start? Do you do it for the jersey? The girls? Why? Your response will be simple, "You play football because you love watching, learning, enjoying, and playing football." Sometimes your response will simply be, "come watch us then you'll find out." Throughout your career, You will have had wins and losses like everyone else but will always be told you have the most heart, dedication, and leadership, which were the best things an athlete could have. By your senior year, you won't want to play due to a few reasons. Some being because you will have had three coaches in four years. Three new offenses and three million new defenses. As the clock hits 00:00 on Senior Night vs. Newport, you will realize that you went 0-10 and that in your whole career you had 0 touchdowns, 0 tackles, etc, except for those miraculous plays in midgets and HS. Do you care? To be honest, no. Because you will give everything you had, your whole career, and you should be proud of it. You will be sad that it ended but proud. You will be the "Rudy" of your football team and shouldn't care. You should care about your coaches past and present, teammates past and present, and be thankful that you had the best team ever who didn't win on the scoreboard but won on the field. To close out, it's not about the stats. But it's whether or not you stay dedicated to something you love and to give everything you have every play, regardless of your last play or the questions asked. You just simply answer, "watch me."
You'll make friends and stay as dedicated to them as ever. In life, you will be given a test that teaches you a lesson. Whether it's who you become friends with, who you leave behind, what you do, or what you say. Mistakes are part of life, everyone makes them, everyone regrets them. But, some learn from them and some end up making them again. It's up to you to decide if you'll use your mistakes to your advantage.
"You've got so much up ahead. You'll make new friends. You should see your kids and wife. And I'd end up saying have no fear. These are nowhere near the best years of your life"
- Brad Paisley Letter to Me
Just remember that no matter what happens, whether your heart gets broken or that you don't do the best in school, always remember that you were meant to impact peoples lives in a good way. You were meant to help them become better men and women, give them the confidence to strive for success, make them feel better about themselves instead of being down about being made fun of, etc. Help them become better people and help them pass it on to others. Continue to do it for as long as you can. One day, you will wake up and realize you are not children anymore. Perhaps it’s after you graduate elementary school, or maybe it’s high school, or maybe it’s when you have your first kiss in the back of a truck at a football game or start to worry about money or death. Whenever it is, you do grow up and you will be ready.
