The first day of school our professor introduced himself and
challenged us to get to know someone we didn’t already know. I stood up to look
around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder.
I turned round to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming
up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being.
She said, “Hi handsome. My name is Rose.
I’m eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug?”
I laughed and enthusiastically responded, “Of course you
may!” and she gave me a giant squeeze.
“Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?” I
asked.
She jokingly replied, “I’m here to meet a rich husband, get
married, and have a couple of kids…”
“No seriously,” I asked. I was curious what may have
motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age.
“I always dreamed of having a college education and now I’m
getting one!” she told me.
After class we walked to the student union building and
shared a chocolate milkshake.
We became instant friends. Every day for the next three
months we would leave class together and talk nonstop. I was always mesmerized
listening to this “time machine” as she shared her wisdom and experience with
me.
Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and
she easily made friends wherever she went.
She loved to dress up and she reveled in the attention
bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it up.
At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our
football banquet.
I’ll never forget what she taught us. She was introduced and
stepped up to the podium. As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she
dropped her three by five cards on the floor.
Frustrated and a little embarrassed she leaned into the
microphone and simply said, “I’m sorry I’m so jittery. I gave up beer for Lent
and this whiskey is killing me! I’ll never get my speech back in order so let
me just tell you what I know.”
As we laughed she cleared her throat and began, “We do not
stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing.
There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy,
and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor every day. You’ve got
to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die.
We have so many people walking around who are dead and don’t
even know it!
There is a huge difference between growing older and growing
up.
If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full
year and don’t do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old. If I am
eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do anything I will
turn eighty-eight.
Anybody can grow older. That doesn’t take any talent or
ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity in change. Have
no regrets.
The elderly usually don’t have regrets for what we did, but
rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with
regrets.”
She concluded her speech by courageously singing “The Rose.”
She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live them
out in our daily lives.
At the year’s end Rose finished the college degree she had
begun all those years ago.
One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep.
