High Hopes

Happy Friday Everyone,

I  wanted to share this song..and tell you a little story.  Check it out!  

Just as an aside, I always have high hopes (pun intended) that I am delivering you fresh content when I share a video I like or one that speaks to me in some way.   But I'd really have to be naive to think this.  More than likely you guys are spending enough time on YouTube and social media to have seen everything I have seen.  I watch the way my kids absorb media content, and I would be silly to think that you haven't heard, High Hopes, or seen Walk off the Earth perform these unique covers.  The real reason I share the things I do on my blog is that they usually inspire a thought that I can then translate into my little mini school counseling lesson for the day.  If you've been a faithful blog reader, thanks for sticking with me for all of these lessons, and I hope that you get as much from reading them as I get from writing them.      

So my story today...when I hear the song High Hopes, it always inspires me to think about the possibilities that lie in wait for us.  I am 43 and I love to dream and imagine all the creative things that I could do with my life.  That probably sounds silly to you because I have a job, and kids, and responsibilities, and I can't just be wandering around willy-nilly playing out all of my wildest dreams. 

 It, therefore makes me want to inspire all of you to do some of the things I didn't when I was young.  Don't get me wrong...I've done lots of cool stuff...skied in Aspen, played in the waves at Sunset Beach, swam in volcanic hot springs in Costa Rica, walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, Zip-lined between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains in British Columbia, Driven along the Pacific Coast Highway in California, Walked on Cannon Beach in Oregon (where the opening scene of the movie Goonies took place) and snorkeled in a dormant Volcano in Hawaii. 

You might read that list and think, "Mrs. Hempey, you've lead a pretty fantastic life!" You'd be right. I've been lucky in many ways to have experienced all of this, but most of these things that I've experienced are things that I've done just since college and for the most part before having kids. (So from about age 20 to age 35).  I grew up here in VT in a very middle-class family.  We didn't take fancy vacations, we didn't drive fancy cars, and my parents both worked in order to send my siblings and me to a catholic school, which was important to them.  I flew on a plane once in my life before I turned 21 (to go to Disney in FL when I was seven).  The next flight I took was to Alabama to walk across that bridge in college during a service-learning experience.  The first flight I took on my own was to visit a friend in Aspen when I was 23.   

Even though we travel with our kids these days, it's usually to see family on the west coast, and not because we are jet setting around the world to exotic locations.  So hearing the song High Hopes, makes me wish just a little, wonder about possibilities, and dream about fun things yet to come.  It also makes me want to encourage each and every one of you to find ways to explore the world both near and far.  Here are some things I wish I had done...

...I wish I had studied abroad or at least gone on the comparative cultures trip to Europe which my high school offered.  My older sister went, but I was too nervous to leave home when it was my turn.  I stayed in VT that summer instead and missed out on seeing much of Europe.  I still haven't gotten there.  VT is great, but so is the rest of the world!  If you have the chance to experience it, you should take every opportunity you get.  

...I wish I had not believed my school counselor when they told me I wasn't strong enough in math to become an architect, which was something I wonder about today.  Don't get me wrong...I love my job and where I landed, but I am bummed that I let someone else tell me I wasn't capable enough.  If you have a dream, you should go for it.  Should you be prepared to adjust that dream if things don't work out exactly the way you want it?  Sure, but don't be afraid to try.  (And if your school counselor ever tells you you aren't capable of something - challenge her on it!)  

...I wish I had stayed in college in Connecticut where I started rather than making the decision before the end of my first semester to transfer back to VT.  I regret missing the fun times I could have had with the amazing friends I made there during my second semester.  I wish I had recognized, a bit sooner, the opportunity I had to grow and conquer my biggest fears about being away from home.  

Do you know the movie,  It's A Wonderful Life?  The one where the main character gets a chance to see how the life he lived would be different if he had made different choices?  He didn't love it so much, and he realized how appreciative he was of the things he had.  I feel that way too.  If I had made different choices, I wouldn't be where I am today, so I don't regret too much, but I do hope that from my few regrets you'll remember to grab (safe) opportunities when they arise instead of being weary and not pushing through your fears.  

Here are some things I still want to do that I have not experienced (yet?)...

I want to travel around the US by RV and see all the national parks, monuments, and major historic sights

I want to backpack across Europe

I want to visit Japan to see my high school foreign exchange student, Sayoko, and my former advisee, Daisuke, from the first school I ever worked in.  

I want to hike the AT (this would be a big ask for me, but if given the opportunity, I'd try it!).

I want to run a marathon (another lofty goal as I am not sure my knees would hold out after years of pounding on the basketball court).

I want to go to the tip of South Africa.  

I want to ride my bike across the US. 

I want to walk the Camino de Santiago in Spain.  

I want to do all of these things with my kids so that they experience the world.  :) 

Will I do all of these things, probably not, but will I do some of them?  Absolutely!  I hope that you too will create a list of things that you want to do.   Make sure to tick some of them off in your lifetime!  You guys are young, and you have so much opportunity laid before you, so dream big my friends, and when you figure out what it is that you want to do, don't be afraid to go after it!  Have high hopes for living!  

Happy Friday, Friends!

Be well, 

Mrs. Hempey