Congratulations!
We in Cumberland and South Fentress counties are celebrating our high school graduates this week. You can check them out in our keepsake section in today’s issue. Their faces, filled with hopes and dreams, are inspiring.
I sat on Sunday afternoon mulling over this column and wondering what an old lady can possibly say to these young people on the cusp of the rest of their lives. Or what they’d want to hear from an old lady.
Then I heard something, from what we are to believe is an even older lady.
“Don’t live your life with regrets. Go after your dreams, because you are only here for a short time.”
That advice comes from Hetty, a Gilded Age character on the TV show “Ghosts,” which played in the background as I worked.
It’s the perfect advice, for graduates and the rest of us.
Don’t be afraid to do that scary thing. Travel. Take lessons in that activity that’s piqued your interest.
Go out there and live.
It’s been more time than I want to admit since my own high school graduation. And I’ll admit there are regrets because the dreams I had seemed too out of reach.
But I didn’t try.
I didn’t work for a year in Alaska after college because I didn’t want to be far from home.
I didn’t learn to skate — roller or ice — because there was time for that later.
I didn’t jump out of that plane because others said it was ridiculous.
I didn’t travel to Europe because it was too expensive.
A year is a mere 365 days. There were a few hours I could have grabbed to strap on skates and give it a go before knee and ankle injuries made it unattainable. I gave others permission to hold me back. I could have borrowed the money to travel.
Today, I see those solutions. And I live with cases of “I wish I had.”
Take it from Hetty and me. Go after your dreams. Do the impossible — even if it’s not what others wouldn’t do themselves.
The only one standing in your way is you. Get out of your way and live.
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Cheryl Duncan is editor of the Crossville Chronicle. She can be reached at cduncan@crossville-chronicle.com or 931-484-5145.