Sage Advice!

Follow your dreams.  Work hard and reach for the stars.  These are words of encouragement that we routinely extend to students during the month of May.  As I prepare to speak to an FFA chapter at the close of this school year’s chapter, I feel the responsibility of delivering this message in a meaningful way.  How can I relate to these young, energetic, enthusiastic youth who look forward to everything life has to offer?  Their world is waiting.

I remember those mixed feelings of exuberance and fear that swept into my mind when I realized my comfortable, sheltered life as a teenager would dramatically change as I stepped away from my family’s farm as I grasped my high school diploma and the congratulating hands of many well wishers.  I tried not to let the nervous thoughts cloud the day, but their shadows nagged in the background of my mind.  What would my life hold in store?  Would I succeed in reaching my goals?  What were my goals, really?

My life’s journey, since graduating from high school, has taken many unexpected turns.  When speaking to young people, I always encourage them to keep an open mind and remain flexible to opportunities you never expected.  Being willing to change directions if the right thing comes along is a good thing.

Many times I think about our third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, who was changed the direction of his life many times.  He was a lawyer, statesman, inventor, farmer, naturalist, architect, writer and philanthropist who never stopped striving to make a difference.  He served his country for five decades and still found time to learn new things each and every day.  He.had his own list of ten simple rules for living and wrote these words in 1825, just sixteen months before his death in his 83rd year of life.  His rules for living are still applicable, 183 years later:

1.  “never put off till tomorrow what you can do today;
2.  never trouble another for what you can do yourself;
3.  never spend your money before you have it;
4.  never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to you;
5.  pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold;
6.  we never repent of having eaten too little;
7.  nothing is troublesome that we do willingly;
8.  how much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened;
9.  take things always by their smooth handle;
10.  when angry, count to ten, before you speak;  if very angry, an hundred.”

A more modern-day translation of Jefferson’s advice would still suggest that successful people:
1. don’t procrastinate;
2. be self-reliant;
3., get a job and don’t live on credit cards;
4.  don’t buy things you don’t need just because there is a sale;
5.  swallow your pride so it doesn’t cost you friends, family, job;
6.  don’t be a glutton;
7.  do everything willingly and with a caring heart;
8.  don’t worry about things that might never happen;
9.  be smart about handling hot issues in life;
10.  don’t speak until your anger cools down!

While few of us will achieve the fame of Thomas Jefferson, we all can make a difference in our own life and the lives of others if we work hard --- while taking some time to enjoy the good things life has to offer.

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