Oh, what will this year bring?

Looks like he’s almost made it

August 15, 2007 on 10:47 am | In Uncategorized, Paul |

Paul has taken my good advice about only thinking one year into the future. It’s eased the pressure on him and he’s even told people at school that he doesn’t know what he wants to do because that’s more than year out and he’s only thinking one year at a time. He’s even used it on me, like when I asked him where he thought he would apply for a job next summer.

“Can’t tell you,” he laughed, “that’s over the 12 month limit.”

Funny how advice has a way of doubling back on you like that.

Still, I do prod him from time to time to think about what he will do after high school. That time is coming and cannot be held back.

“I’ve never really thought about it,” he confessed to me one day, “because I never thought I’d make it this far.”

It didn’t surprise me to hear that but what he said next did.

“I remember telling kids when we were in fifth grade, I’m not going to make it.”

I didn’t know he knew it then, but without support and perserverance, he was a kid in jeopardy. I had decided to keep the knowledge of his disabilities to myself, that maybe if he didn’t know he couldn’t do a thing, he’d do it anyway. And it worked. He tried everything that came before him. Frankly, there weren’t many things he was good at but every now and then he’d excel at something and surprise everyone, himself included. And for me, it never mattered whether he succeeded or failed; what mattered is that he tried. And he always tried.

After that talk, I’ve thought of some new advice to give Paul.

There are a lot of shows on TV that I would never watch, never even tried had it not been for Paul’s encouragement. Take Dirty Jobs, for instance. Each week, Mike Rowe plays apprentice for several jobs in which he gets really really filthy. He’s a pretty funny guy who can make light of the misery in any job. But the really great thing about the show is that we get to see jobs we never knew existed but somehow knew we never wanted.

I broke my new idea to Paul like this.

“You know how most people would really like to have just one job for their entire lives that they are really good at?” I asked him.

“Yeah,” he sounded a bit worried about what I was going to say next.

“Well, I think you should take the complete opposite approach,” I suggested. “Try to have 100 jobs in your lifetime.”

“A hundred is kind of a lot, Mom,” he said but I could tell he was intrigued.

“I think it’s doable though,” I replied. “You’re going to get fired from a lot of them.” Paul laughed and nodded. “So you won’t be at some of them for very long. I’m sure you could squeeze in a hundred jobs in your lifetime. You could be an overachiever at underachieving.”

There’s only one reason why Paul could complete the 100 job challenge: he’s not afraid of failure.  He’s taken the one thing that so many people fear the most and turned it to his advantage. Failure is the key that unlocks the door to opportunity, to all the other possibilities that exist.

The irony is that if Paul does take on the adventure of 100 jobs, it would be a life so fascinating everyone would want to read about it. Only, he’d never write about it because he hates to read. I guess that just leaves me to write about it.

A mother’s work is never done.