Life doesn’t come with guarantees. Hope for bright and shiny, but be prepared for hard knocks too, because they are coming, and that’s ok.
I got the chance to drive a car that displays the speedometer on the windscreen – a Kia Stinger. Have you seen them? The Queensland police have been using them because they drive fast and hug the road hard.
This display feature meant as I was driving, looking at the road, the car’s computer also threw up significant information about the road ahead.
A bright yellow sign that said School Zone was projected onto the windscreen and the speed limit popped beside it – 40km/hr.
When I used the Navigation feature, it shone the directional arrows on the screen too.
The idea was that I knew what was coming up.
It worked a treat right until a car pulled out in front of me – no warning.
Because nothing can ever totally tell us what is ahead for us in life.
Tomorrow, our eldest child, Declan, finishes Year 12.
18 years old, a touch over 6’ 5” with a full head of hair (unlike his dad), at least for now and a big presence ready to launch into life.
He has a plan – get some full-time work, move out of home and head to university for a while.
It’s a good plan and he thinks life will be all bright and shiny.
And as all parents, we hope there is lots of bright and shiny in his future.
But we also know that life is going to smack him around along the way.
There is no way of ever guaranteeing what lays ahead for any of us, but we do know that it will bring highs and lows, the great, the frustrating, the unfair and the downright ordinary.
That is Life.
How Declan responds will become the measure of the man he grows into.
So, whilst Declan is leaving one school, he is stepping straight into another – the School of Hard Knocks where we have to deal with what life throws us, make the best decisions we can at the time and be ready to learn from our mistakes.
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We have told him one thing – “Declan, you go live your life the best way you can. We will be right here when it gets tough to lend you a hand, we will be here when you mess up to help you face up to it and we will be right here when it makes you smile to smile with you. Always.”
We see Churchill clients all the time that are facing these times in their own lives … Times when life is tough through no fault of their own. Times when they have stuffed up and need to face up to losing their jobs. And times when they are celebrating new opportunities.
And we are right here, to help the best we can.
Tricia Velthuizen
Co-Founder
