Choices

After yesterday, I thought it would be a good idea to keep it a little light today. 

My daughter starts high school in the fall and last night we attended a virtual open house for the school she will be attending. We learned about the school motto, and who it was named after. We learned about the school's learning philosophy and about some of the features the school has to make it a place of learning. Including that there is a therapy dog in the form of a big, black lab that comes once a week. 

Now that you know about the part I am most excited about, let's get to the point. I sat with her and we reacted to the presentation together, mostly in the form of laughing at something the other said. Then she got a little serious. It was during the part of the PowerPoint when they show all the different options that the school has. 

I should have prefaced this by saying that there was another plan in place. She had planned to follow in her brother's footsteps by graduating from the same program and same high school that he did. The government no longer saw the value of the program and decided that only one school in the system would continue with it. That school is clear on the other side of the city. The time spent going back and forth would not allow for any extracurriculars or the social life that a normal teenager has. So, we looked closer to home.

The original plan was all sorted, with options she would be taking, and when. Then the school switch happened. The new school offers so many options that appeal to her. I think it struck her for the first time that this could be a part of her building for the rest of her life. I have tried to raise both of the kids with their ages in mind. It seems now that kids are in such a hurry to grow up. I wanted my kids to be kids. So maybe I have failed in making sure they are prepared. Or maybe this would have happened either way.

I am looking forward to watching her choose her path, celebrate the successes, and mourn the things that didn't go her way. But to always remind her that no matter what happens, it's an opportunity for growth. I don't like the word failure. It packs a powerful punch that is hard to come back from. We all have enough on our plates, we don't need to focus on the bad forever. 

The future can be a scary place if you decide that it is. I try to focus on the good things that are coming my way. There is no time to fall back, only to learn the lesson and keep moving forward. 

In that frame of mind, today's song is one that I have jokingly sung to the kids numerous times. You Can't Always Get What You Want by The Rolling Stones. The song was released in 1969 as a track on the "Let It Bleed" album. Many critics believe it was written as a counterpart to the Beatles song "Hey Jude", Mick Jagger was said to be a fan of the orchestration of Hey Jude and wanted to try something similar. 

In a funny twist of trivia, Donald Trump used the song as a part of his campaign in 2016 and was asked to stop. Then he used it again once in 2020 when the Stones stopped him and he decided to use YMCA by the Village People instead. So, he went from using a song that Mick Jagger said was about drug use in Chelsea, to one about random gay hookups. Hm. I guess I couldn't stay away from politics altogether.