My son and daughter are two of the most optimistic people I’ve ever known. Hold on, that’s not right—they are without a doubt the most optimistic people I’ve ever known.
Year’s ago my son (the engineer) was up for a big promotion at his company, but he didn’t get it. There were some internal politics going on and a bit of weirdness and it wasn’t really handled fairly. I talked to my son shortly afterward, and he was understandably disappointed, but then he said to me, “You know what, dad, I’m going to work tomorrow as if I got that promotion anyway and let them all see it, and maybe next time….” And next time most certainly came—he was recently promoted to the highest level of his profession!
And just two days ago I got the following text from my daughter (the poverty-stricken college student): “Hey dad, I need rent money for tomorrow. Sorry. I hate to ask. 😥 ” And after my wife transferred in some money we realized that after paying her rent our daughter would only have $0.16 left in her account. My wife mentioned that to her, and our daughter said, “That’s sixteen cents more than I thought I had!”
Isn’t it wonderful when your biggest role models are your own children?
(In the pic above, the overly optimistic ones are on the outside edges, framing our family with happy expectation.)