My advice: Slide head first into life

 On the Way Out series  Vol.  5  Part  8

For all you young people out there who just might happen to find your way to The Senior Center and are searching for answers to those youthful questions that are sitting on the edge of your tongue. . .well this column is for you.

First, don't rush it. It's a big plate -- this world of ours. The answers will come soon enough. So, like the little one in the photo, dive head first into your young life and enjoy being a kid.  Put your hat on backwards and run those bases with vigor.

Yes, your teammates in life are similar to you, but you are unique and you will discover, a few years down the road, that endless possibilities will emerge and you will have that chance to mold your body and your mind into that special person you are. 

It will be small steps at first.  A simple task like when your mother or father unfastened those training wheels on you bike and the two-wheeler begins to glide down the street with a cool breeze hitting you squarely in the face. 

Suddenly a big smile crosses your face. Job well done! Your little highway in life has just widened.

Enjoy your "school days" and take time to let the lessons of the day sink in. Store all that information inside that noggin of yours; some of it you will need down the road, some you will not...but it is like a round house curve ball coming at you that needs to be straightened out by you. . .and only you.

Soon you'll be swinging for the fences and the day will come when you grab the tassel on your graduation cap and move it from right to left. Then you'll walk off the stage with your parents cheering you on in the audience -- the same parents who had removed those training wheels years ago.

You will enter the real world running.

Never forget that little boy or girl who made that head first slide into home.

You have just scored and now the big scoreboard awaits...