What We Want for the Next Generation

In her speaking event at school on February 1, parenting blogger and camp director Audrey Monke asked everyone to write on a card what we would like our children to be like in 20 years. Since I have children, I thought that I want my twenty-something children to be parents in twenty years (hopefully sooner). I then started thinking about your children and what I want for them in twenty years. I want them to have friends and maybe even spouses. I want them to have jobs that excite them, and to be respected by their co-workers. I want them to be kind and honest and to vote. I want them to be joyful, to travel the world, and to live without fear. I want them to be healthy and capable of caring for themselves and a few others.

What I notice in my list of desires for your children is that it doesn’t include where they go to college. Also missing is how many followers they have on Instagram, unless that’s an indicator of success in their profession. Similarly, their salary doesn’t matter, as long as it’s enough to allow them to pay their own way and to enjoy some of our world’s pleasures. Whether they lettered on their high school athletic team doesn’t factor into my list, either.

As we partner to educate and grow your promising and talented children, let’s remember to focus on desired long-term outcomes. Let’s also model for these children these outcomes by having and being friends, and living our lives with integrity and joy. Let’s clearly share with them that their efforts count. Let’s also model humor and grace towards ourselves when we make mistakes, and let’s show our children how we try a new way to find success. Let’s also hug our children and love them and keep them safe and have fun with them, because those twenty years will be here much sooner than we think!

Gradatim ad summum,
Angi Evans