Hey Kids it’s Dad, and today I want to talk about something really special that happened at Clara’s graduation. I went there expecting to be a teary eyed mess watching my daughter cross the stage. I was certainly a teary-eyed mess, but not for that reason. Sometimes it’s the unexpected things that catch you off-guard. This unexpected tender moment happened when Clara’s elementary school friend Richard took the stage to get his certificate. You see Richard has special needs and is been in a wheelchair all his life. Clara and Richard have been good friends since fourth grade. Clara would sit next to him at lunch and went over all just be his friend. Clara has always had a warm spot in her heart for Richard.
OK back to the story. So when Richard’s mom wheeled him up to the podium to get his diploma, the whole audience was silent. One of the people on stage brought Richards walker up so he could walk to get his diploma. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house with yours truly leading the way. It was an amazing moment. Sadly Richard was not able to completely walk to get his diploma. But that’s not the point of the discussion. The point is how high of a mountain he had to climb to get where he was. I’ve been to high school, I know the amount of effort needed to graduate. And I know many of those kids coasted through high school, I know I did.
But then I look at Richard, and what he was able to accomplish. He did things no one thought he would ever be able to do and now he’s a high school graduate!
Kids we all have mountains to climb. But we need to give it our all. Richard gave everything he had to get where he is today. We all need to use Richard as our example. We all need to be a lot more like Richard!