How's Your Vision?

“A College Admittance Application”

How’s Your Vision?

Most of what it takes to complete a college application on-line is time.  The time I’ve spent doing it has been time well spent; since it’s been with my daughter.  The other day she pulled out her computer and we sat down to answer a few questions together.

The questions we were answering were easy and we breezed along until we hit one question in particular. “What will you have accomplished within the next five years?”

“Why do they always ask such stupid questions?” my daughter asked.

My thoughts went back to interviews I’ve seen with small children.  Most of them don’t hesitate with an answer to a similar question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Their answers flow freely and confidently; a cowboy, a teacher, astronaut, doctor, firefighter, lawyer.

“I don’t have any idea!”

“Yes you do.” I replied.  “You’ve told me over and over again.  Would you like me to tell you what you told me?”

“Yes.”

I spent a few minutes listing the things she had told me in the past.  They were exciting and challenging things.  They were the things she has been spending the last few years working toward.

“I haven’t thought about those things for a long time!”  She said.

We spent the next few minutes writing, thinking about and crafting the vision of her future to complete her application.  It was a good exercise for us to go through.  We talked about the fact that this vision was the basis for her success in college and for her life as well.  It caused me to think about my own life and experience.

We were sitting in our house.  It is the house this girl has lived in virtually her whole life.  We have a photo of her standing in this same house, the winter it was under construction, in her snow suit with bare feet.  She has a huge grin on her face and when I look at the photo today I can still feel her exuberance.

“Had I not created a plan for this house, thought about it, worked to build it, would we be sitting in it right now?  The chances would be too small to even comprehend.  So is the future of my life any different?”

I’ve noticed that as I get older, my eyes don’t quite work as well as they used to.  Now I wish that was the only part of my vision that has been deteriorating!  Good thing I just finished a vision correction session with my daughter!

I’m going to spend some time making application for my future over the next couple of weeks.  It will take some time to create a plan, think it through and work to build it.  I’m sure it will turn out to be as comfortable and customized as the house I live in is. 

The truth is that we all live in our custom lives.  Is your life the way you want it to be, or do you need to begin a new set of plans?