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A summary of, followed by a response
to, Cliff Schneider’s essay “I’m Still Learning from My Mother.”
In
the Newsweek essay “Still Learning from My Mother,” Cliff Schneider
talks about life lessons he still learns from his 79 year old mother. Schneider vividly describes his mother in
her youth as being very gracious but also very competitive and great at
sports. As the years go by his mom
grows old and slowly realizes that she is not as physically young as she
once was. Still determined to be at
the top of her game, his mother aims for a seemingly unfeasible goal: to
score 200 points in a game of bowling.
Schneider never thought his mom’s goal would be accomplished, yet
one night he received a call from his excited mother who exclaimed that she
had exceeded her goal. Schneider, a
retired freshwater biologist, learned a couple of important lessons--that you can never be too
old to set goals for yourself, and that you should be open to everyone because
you never know what someone might teach you.
Schneider’s essay was very
descriptive and tells his story with the underlying moral lesson at the
end. Like Schneider, I am surprised
sometimes at the lessons I learn from unexpected people. I have encountered several unexpected
people in my job as a restaurant server.
These people have taught me that it is important to dream big and
accomplish the goals you set for yourself and share your accomplishments
with someone you love.
The
other day at work, I served this elderly couple who was celebrating an
accomplishment. The wife had
recently graduated with a Doctorate in Sociology. She had been a junior high teacher for
many years, and she spoke of her early ambitions of getting her Doctorate,
a goal she had set for herself back when she first started teaching. Listening to all the bumps she
encountered on her way to a Doctorate, I was surprised at her ambitious
journey to her Doctorate, thinking to myself that she is too old to be able
to do anything with it. But then I
recalled Schneider writing that, to encourage his mother’s determination to bowl a
200-game, he just “smiled and nodded in agreement,” the many
times his mother mentioned this goal (6). So I smiled, too, particularly
when I glanced at the woman’s husband who sat there
looking at his wife lovingly, with a warm smile on his face, proud as can
be. After they had left, I was happy
for her but didn’t really think much more about it.
Later
that night, after going home from work, I began to seriously think about
this lady’s impressive accomplishment.
She had set a goal for herself and was able to carry out her dream
through her determination. Her age had
nothing to do with her goal and I suddenly felt bad for thinking that because
she was older there was no point in getting a Doctorate. This lady was beaming and much like
Schneider‘s mother her “…achievement has lifted her spirits and made her
feel young again” (6). She had a
dream and she wasn’t too old to achieve it.
Her age was not the issue; here it was a matter of completing the
goal she had set for herself. Her
story was inspiring and when I got home from my job, I was overwhelmed with
the lessons I could take from this simple encounter.
As
Schneider said about his mother, “Vince Lombardi would be proud”(4), as so obviously was her husband. I was not only thinking about this woman
but also about her husband. It was
obvious that her husband loved her and supported her through her
journey. He didn’t need to say a word
for someone to see how proud he was.
In life, it is important to surround yourself with people that love
and encourage you to go after the things you want for yourself. To share an accomplishment with someone
you love, who has been there for you, is better than to do it alone. This couple set forth a perfect example
of a loving and supportive relationship.
It is so important to
dream big and set goals for yourself.
Through determination anything is possible and you can accomplish
your goals. Having the support and
encouragement of someone you love is also important. As Schneider says so eloquently “…you are never too old to dream
and never too old to realize those dreams”(6).
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