Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Finding your way

It seems in life there are so many questions to ask as we grow and experience our lives and our daily living and the answers may not always be so evident. We all have to learn from these experiences we encounter and mistakes will be made along the way. That is the only way we will learn and develop as individuals with our own thoughts, ideas, visions, hopes and dreams. I am evolving and growing still even as an adult and that will never change. As we age we should acquire great knowledge and wisdom which we will draw upon as we raise our own children. It seems we learn from the previous generation, our parents and if we are lucky enough we will also learn from the generation preceding them, our grandparents.

Life is a true blessing and a miracle and we should always be grateful for the opportunity and learn to appreciate each and every day. When we are very young we will have no recollection of our infancy or our years as toddlers but as we grow to become young children we will have lasting memories of our parents, our early days of school, our friends, our visits to our grandparents during the holidays and our first time learning to ride a bicycle. It is these experiences that will help shape us, give us insight, help develop our personality and teach us about life.

I have come to realize that loneliness is a very real part of life and we all need to come to terms with it because the reality is we all will feel alone many times in our life no matter how many people we will meet and befriend along the way. It is just the natural order of things and we know that we come into the world alone into a loving family hopefully and we leave this world alone hopefully with our loved ones by our side. We also should realize that we all have an impact on one another and our lives are richer for the many relationships we develop. We become better individuals when we reach out to help others and take the time to listen and be a friend. Friendships are very important and we learn early on how important it is to communicate and reach out to others.
   
Our formative years are spent in school where we will learn academics and social skills which we will build upon and take with us into our young adulthood. It is our formal schooling which will play a major part in our life as that will help us identify our strengths and weaknesses and provide us with the insight we will need to decide on our educational pursuits outside of high school and our career choices. It is at this time in our life where we will have to make very important choices and take responsibility and we will need to learn about who we are and what we wish to do with our lives. We will certainly need guidance, encouragement, support and understanding as we each navigate this time in our young lives.

We must always remember where we came from and how we got to the place we are and we must always try our best to teach our children and give them all the love, support, encouragement and guidance they will need in their lives so they can feel comfortable and know they are worthy of achieving their hopes and dreams. We all must find our way and if we really try our best and live our lives to be responsible, caring, dedicated and happy individuals then we will find the strength and courage to do so and we will be able to teach our children which is our most important challenge in life.

My wife and I will always strive to teach our son all that we know and to give him our love, encouragement, time and support to help enable him to find his way as that is our most important responsibility in life.

Edward D. Iannielli III