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OLD IS GOLD
(Mailed by Sudesh Gupta from
Canada
)
The first
day of
school our
professor
introduced
himself and
challenged
us to get to
know someone
we didn't
already
know.
I stood up
to look
around when
a gentle
hand touched
my shoulder.
I
turned
around to
find a
wrinkled,
little old
lady beaming
up at me
with a
smile that
lit up her
entire
being.
She
said, "Hi handsome. My name is Rose. I'm
eighty-seven
years old.
Can I give
you a hug?"
I
laughed and
enthusiastically
responded,
"Of
course you
may!"
and she gave
me a
giant
squeeze.
"Why
are you in
college at
such a
young,
innocent
age?" I
asked.
She jokingly
replied,
"I'm here to meet a rich husband, get
married,
and have a
couple of
kids..."
"No
seriously,"
I asked.
I
was curious
what may
have
motivated
her to be
taking on
this
challenge at
her age.
"I always dreamed of having a college education and now
I'm getting
one!"
she told me.
We became
instant
friends.
Every day
for the next
three months
we would
leave class
together and
talk
nonstop. I
was always
mesmerized
listening
to
this
"time
machine"
as she
shared her
wisdom and
experience
with me.
Over
the course
of the year,
Rose became
a campus
icon and she
easily
made friends
wherever she
went.
She
loved to
dress up and
she reveled
in the
attention
bestowed
upon her
from the
other
students.
She was
living it
up.
At the end
of the
semester we
invited Rose
to speak at
our football
banquet.
I'll never
forget what
she taught
us. She was
introduced
and stepped
up to the
podium. As
she began to
deliver her
prepared
speech, she
dropped her
three by
five cards
on the
floor.
Frustrated
and a little
embarrassed
she leaned
into the
microphone
and simply
said,
"I'm
sorry I'm so
jittery. I
gave up beer
for Lent and
this whiskey
is killing
me! I'll
never get my
speech back
in order so
let me just
tell you
what I
know."
As we laughed she
cleared her
throat and
began,
* "We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old
because we
stop playing.
* There are only four secrets to staying young, being
happy, and
achieving
success.
*
You have to laugh and find humor every
day. You've
got to have
a
dream. When
you lose
your dreams,
you die.
* We have so many people walking around who are dead and
don't even
know it!
* There is a huge difference
between
growing
older and
growing
up.
*
If you
are nineteen
years old
and lie in
bed for one
full year
and don't
do
one
productive
thing, you
will turn
twenty years
old.
If I am
eighty-seven
years old
and stay in
bed for a
year and
never do
anything I
will turn
eighty-eight.
* Anybody can grow older. That doesn't
take any
talent or
ability. The
idea is to
grow up by
always
finding
opportunity
in change.
Have no
regrets.
*
The elderly usually don't have regrets
for what we
did, but
rather for
things we
did not do.
The only
people who
fear death
are those
with regrets."
She
concluded
her speech
by
courageously
singing
"The
Rose."
She
challenged
each of us
to study the
lyrics and
live them
out in our
daily lives.
At the
year's end
Rose
finished the
college
degree she
had begun
all those
years ago.
One
week after
graduation
Rose died
peacefully
in her
sleep.
Over
two thousand
college
students
attended her
funeral in
tribute to
the
wonderful
woman who
taught by
example that
it's never
too late to
be all you
can
possibly be
These
words have
been passed
along in
loving
memory of
ROSE.
REMEMBER,
GROWING
OLDER IS
MANDATORY.
GROWING UP
IS OPTIONAL.
We make a Living by what we get, We make a Life by what
we give.
God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage.
If God
brings you
to it, He
will bring
you through
it.
"Good friends are like stars... You don't always see them,
but you know
they are
always
there." |
