Parent to Parent By Jodie Lynn
Moments for Mom By Elisabeth Corcoran
Ask A Twin Mommy By Cheryl Lage
Mothering By Heart By Cheri Fuller
Jelly Mom By Lisa Barker
Family Check-up By Sheila Wray Gregoire
Simplifying Motherhood By Trish Berg
Making the Most of Marriage By Paula Friedrichsen
If Life Had Do Overs
June, 2007
By Trish Berg
When I was a little girl, I loved playing basketball in my driveway with my dad and big sister. We’d play H-O-R-S-E. Miss a shot, earn a letter. When you spell out the whole word, you’re out, you lose, game over.
Being a bit of a whiner, whenever I missed a shot, I would always shout, “do-over” and try again, again, and yet again, until the basket was made, or my sister got mad.
Do-overs are great things. It’s like a second chance, a fresh start. An opportunity to get it right, even if you got it wrong the first time.
I only wish life had do-overs like basketball does.
This past week, I have been attending a cyber-reunion of sorts with my high school class. It started with a simple e-mail that was sent out to about half my graduating class asking for other contact information, inviting us to our 20th reunion this fall.
But then someone hit “reply to all” and sent a sweet hello, and update on his life. What followed has been nothing short of a full cyber reunion.
So I dusted off my senior yearbook the other day, and started looking through the old photos.
The first thing my kids said was, “Mommy, you were thinner in high school!” Weren’t we all!
 |
 |
In 1987, as a senior, I was a basketball player, point guard to be exact. I wasn’t exactly in the popular clique, though I had some friends who were. I’m not sure I fit into any one group perfectly. Part athlete, part brainiac, part geek, all me.
I kind of floated between groups of friends, and didn’t fit a mold very well, and at 17, that was tough.
As I strolled down memory lane in that old yearbook, what struck me the most was all the faces of perfect strangers looking back at me. Kids in my class that I never took the time to get to know. Just like me, struggling with life, trying to fit in.
And though that teenage girl is still living inside of me, at 37, I have grown to be comfortable in my own skin. I know who I am, and actually like myself, even with all my flaws.
So I want a high school do-over.
I want to go back and get it right this time around.
This time, I wouldn’t care so much what people thought about me. I would study harder, run faster, and smile more. I would be kinder to everyone, take the time to listen to people, and not worry about who was in what clique.
And I wouldn’t spend so much time on my hair.
I would take the time to get to know those perfect strangers looking up at me from my old yearbook. Who knows, maybe I’d even become their friend.
Do-overs are great things. It’s like a second chance, a fresh start. An opportunity to get it right, even if you got it wrong the first time.
But since there are no real do-overs in life, and I can’t go back to high school, I can simply try to live my life today better than I lived it back then.
And maybe that’s the point anyway.
Trish would love to hear from you at www.trishberg.com, or e-mail trishberg @ trishberg.com.
© Trish Berg, 2006-
Trish Berg is author to The Great American Supper Swap, and Rattled - Surviving Your Baby's First Year without Losing Your Cool! She has been a guest ABC World News Tonight, Midday Connection, and The Harvest Show.
She is an internationally known speaker for ministries such as MOPS, Hearts at Home, and in Australia on Parenting Seminars Online. She has written for Today's Christian Woman, MOMSense, CBN.com and P31 WOMAN.
For more information, check out www.TrishBerg.com
Read Trish's Simplifying Motherhood column at C'Moms