There is a class in the local high school in which students are challenged. They identify a long term project, one that includes a personal stretch and a service piece. Adults in the community are invited to come serve as judges on how the presentation goes. I have done this for years and it is always a treat. 

 

One time a student built a guitar. I am still impressed. Another student made desserts using recipes from around the world. One girl pursued kickboxing, and another raised money for a charity by putting on a golfing tournament. One of my daughters orchestrated a plant based dinner for fifty people, but it was thwarted by the pandemic. My other twin learned Russian and translated a tour at the museum where she was a guide. These young people are seventeen, maybe eighteen, as they immerse themselves in a goal that will absorb them for fifty or two hundred hours. 

 

I often hear them admit that it was more difficult than they expected, or that they needed to pare down the original expectations. Some of them come face to face with failure. 

 

Yet they persevered. Wisely, there are mentors baked into the system, as well as teachers. Hearing the stories of how they realigned after a dead end inspires me. When one door closes, they find another. 

 

The service piece is golden. The teachers assume that the effort will give back to the community. What a marvelous invitation into what adulthood can offer. 

 

We grown-ups are not shepherded by faculty anymore, though there are assignments that crop up in our path. Hopefully we find mentors to support us in our marriages, and motherhood, and personal pitfalls. Stephen Ministry is one way. Twelve Steps is another. Marriage mentors are a way to find the companionship we need. 

 

I wonder what the speeches would be like, if we told an audience when we have been stretched by life, or how we have served others.