Monthly Musing – August 2016 – The sky’s the limit

I bet there aren’t too many children who are looking forward to
starting school again in a week or so. 
The long holidays are almost over and it always used to seem to me that
the days went faster the closer to September we got – and I think small
daughter feels the same!

It’s going to be a bit different in our house this year as big
daughter starts university at the end of September so she still has time off,
and the whole experience will be quite unlike being at school.  It’s an exciting time, and small daughter –
although she still has quite a few years to go before she can leave school –
has been caught up in the conversations as if she’s off to university as
well. 

Although she has picked her degree course, big daughter is still
deciding exactly which career route she wants to choose.  Small daughter has everything mapped
out.  She’s going to be the Prime
Minister, which she’ll fit in around her New York fashion house and her
Parisian restaurant.  In her spare time,
she’s going to be a competitor at the next Olympic Games (although she can’t
quite decide in which sport) and win The X Factor and Britain’s Got
Talent.  She sees no reason at all why
she can’t do any or all of these things, and although we will help her to steer
her ambitions to make them as achievable as possible, who are we to say that
she won’t be any or all of those things? 
The sky is the limit as far as she is concerned, and that’s the joy of
children.  They can be anything they want
to be and although “real life” sometimes gets in the way and their ambitions
don’t work out quite as they had planned as they grow up, sometimes it’s enough
just to try. 

Who gives us the right to decide that they will or won’t be good at
anything they put their mind to and to put them off before they’ve even
started?  Who had the right to tell us
that we weren’t any good at the things that we now have hang-ups about?  If we were enjoying ourselves, what does it
matter if we didn’t get the gold medal or we changed our minds and chose to do
something else with our lives?

The end of the summer holidays and the return to school always feels
to me like a new year just as much as the “official” one in January.  It’s a time to shake the sand off our feet
and take up something new as the summer fades and the winter edges closer.  It’s an opportunity to fill those dark
evenings with new skills and learning, to discover something else about our
lives, our planet and ourselves.  It’s
time to forget those who might have dampened our childhood ambitions and do
something that suits us now.  The sky is
the limit for us as well.

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11 Responses

  1. Coastal Ripples says:

    Lovely post and good on your youngest daughter to have all those ambitions:). I too always feel like September is a new year. Obviously being in education for so many years certainly made me feel this way. Now in retirement it is still a time of new beginnings. As you say time to start new things, projects etc. All very exciting! Good luck with university with your oldest. After her trip to Peru it should be a walk in the park! B x

    • Winwick Mum says:

      Thank you! Funnily enough, big daughter has chosen to stay quite close to home for her uni studies – I thought that she'd want to go as far away as possible but I suspect she's making sure that she's not too far away from the home washing machine service! 🙂 xx

  2. Chiara (blackbird) says:

    What I like the most with your FB group is all the positive comments to encourage those who are experiencing difficulties in their sock journey. You can do that, do not give up and all these positive words! Sky is the limit, for everything in life.
    "and when the road is wrong, recommence everything from the beginning" as Pope Francis said in its greetings at the beginning of 2016

  3. AnnieOBTextiles says:

    Yes, yes and yes again! Every child (and adult for that matter) should have the love, support and encouragement to reach for their dreams and be the very best that they can. There seem to be so many hurdles and judgements in our society today from tests and exams to image and ethnicity. Surely the greatest gift we can give children is a positive outlook, belief in their own abilities and the courage to deal with set backs. I hope big daughter really enjoys her new adventures at university and younger daughter achieves all she aims to do. She will no doubt make a great PM just like her mum would.

    • Winwick Mum says:

      Well thank you – but I'm not sure the world is ready for either of us to PM any time soon! 😉 xx

  4. Run Home To Crochet says:

    A lovely read and good luck to big daughter on the next chapter in her life and of course good luck to small daughter in whichever path in life she eventually chooses. Joy xx

    • Winwick Mum says:

      I'm quite sure she'll have changed her mind several times before she settles on something – and even then she might change her mind again! 🙂 xx

  5. Christina says:

    I like your small daughter's view of life! Wishing you a successful return to school. x

  6. Angel Jem says:

    September's a month for fresh starts, more so than January, which is really a tidy up month after Christmas. And your youngest has the right idea; why limit yourself to one dream?

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