Write Your Own Screenplay

Today's post is dedicated to my daughter, a college student with an undeclared major.  In writerspeak, she's a writer with a blank manuscript... or an artist standing in front of an empty canvas.  The other day she told me she is signing up for an upper division course -  writing screenplays.  It could turn out to be another elective or it may open a door to an adventurous writing career.

The challenge for parents is to guide their children to their own destinies.  Each of our three children is wired differently and we seek to help them find their unique talents.  Parents who try to mold their children into images of themselves or their own unfulfilled dreams are only stifling their offspring.  The other danger is living dreams through children while forgetting to write their own screenplay.

Like parents, teachers have small morsels of time to plant a seed.  I thank my high school Spanish teacher, "Snora" Ehlers, for introducing me to a fascinating world of words spoken with rolling R's and south of the border spiciness.  Even in her retirement years, she is striving to master new languages.  Her latest venture is Italian.  While she is at one end of the spectrum in her golden years, and my daughter is at the other, both teach us screenplays are to be written at every stage of our lives.

Parents are only granted temporary custody of their children.  Letting go of them when they grow up is not easy.  I find comfort in the prayer sung by Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli.  It's an original soundtrack from the movie "Quest for Camelot." May it encourage you to remember you are on a quest...to find love and fulfill your destiny.  May your life's screenplay challenge the world around you to become better.