Happy Soul Food Friday! – Friday, September 23, 2011.

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  around 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 tolaugh 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 months  ago.
One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in  her sleep.
Over two thousand college students attended  her funeral in tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example  that it’s never too late to be all you can possibly  be.

REMEMBER, GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY.  GROWING UP IS OPTIONAL. We make a Living by what we get. We make a  Life by what we give.