If You Can Dream...

The week is over, and what a week it has been.

Despite the festivities and excitment of (or partly because of) this mega-time in her life, Kayleigh has had a very stressful week.  Lots of small issues arose that she had to deal with and I had to sit back with a beating heart and watch her struggle, fall, get up again, and take flight.

Kayleigh is still very much my sweet, giggly, naive little girl; but she's becoming so much more.

So much more!

Here she is on graduation night having graduated Summa Cum Laude.  Under that gold sash and blue and gold honor's tassels, I see the heart of gold that beats strong and true and with faith that all things are possible.  For us, that's what is most important.

[IF]

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a (Woman), my (daughter)!

--Rudyard Kipling

Comments

[Colleen Mitchell]

Congrats to Kayleigh and the parents who raised such a lovely, successful young woman. Are you ready to relax yet? Come play!

[Dana]

I LOVE that poem. And, congrats to your daughter!

[Deb]

From one Summa Cum Laude to another, Congratulations!

[Maria Ashwell]

She's so lovely! Way to go Mom and Dad and a happy bright future to you Kayleigh!