RetiRing AddRess: WyAtt deJong 40 Believe <strong>Proceedings</strong> <strong>2011</strong>
Etiring AddrEss: wyAtt dEJong “Can’T spell ‘Course’ WITHouT ‘u’” Spelling! *sigh* Why is it so hard? Some words out there just break every rule. You know the words that I am talking about. The words that you are about to type and don’t know what letter comes next. Then the next step is to think of a synonym that is much easier to spell and go with that. Who knows exactly what I am talking about? I like to think that I have gotten better at spelling. But, there was once a time when the phrase “spelling test” would spark panic into me like a three legged cat with a bad cough in the middle of eleven Doberman pinschers. It was third grade. I walked downstairs for my spelling lesson (yes, I was home-schooled for nine years of my life… that meant I was able to go to my class in my pajamas and the cafeteria food was mighty tasty!). I sat down for my lesson. Okla. Wyatt, you can do this, words are not that scary. Then it happened. Ma began to speak. “The word is ‘course’.” Can I have the definition? “The act of moving along a path from point to point.” Well, it sounds like “horse”… course…um…C-O-R-S-E, course. That is how I spelled it for first three weeks. Yep, you heard me right…three weeks (I was never the sharpest quill on the porcupine). Anytime that I spelled that word or any word wrong, my ma would make me practice it over and over and over until I didn’t have to think about it for the rest of the day. After twenty-one days of getting it wrong, I miraculously discovered and mastered that “course” had a ‘U’ in it. I was so discouraged that year I just accepted the fact that I was not a good speller and never would be. My assignments would always have mistakes in them; I’d never get an A in spelling. And that was fine by me. So what if I couldn’t spell. It’s not that big of deal…after all, it’s just the reality for me. But that’s not how my ma saw it. Even though I gave up, my ma never lowered her standards for me and pushed me and expected me to learn not only this word but so many others. She kept me working towards improvement and I am proud to tell you that course is spelled C-O-U-R-S-E. How many times do we just “accept reality” and decide for ourselves we’ll never be good at something? Or come to expect a certain level of performance from ourselves and never even imagine going beyond that? We settle… On the flip side, how many of us have people in our lives, like my ma, that push us beyond what we think we can reach? Who set their standards for us higher than the standards we set for ourselves? We have all worked to be better in different areas of our lives, whether that’s school, <strong>FFA</strong>, in our friendships, or sports. But do we always reach for the best we could be? Or are we still sometimes settling for good enough or contributing the minimum amount of work and energy that others expect? Just imagine, what would it be like if we would all did more? Or if we never settled for “good enough.” The cool thing is, most of the time…we can do more. When we give less than our maximum effort we’re not giving our best. That holds us back from doing mind-bending things or making epic change for ourselves and others around the world! These kinds of things are what we desire to do; great things that require us to do more. We want to make that game winning shot, engineer the next great technology, find a cure for cancer and even stop poverty or world hunger. To prepare ourselves to make these types of awesome things happen, we need to believe and commit to two things. 41 Believe <strong>Proceedings</strong> <strong>2011</strong> 1. Believe that doing more is reachable 2. Believe that the challenge of doing more is worth it Is more Reachable? We’ve all set goals. We learned that in Leadership 101 Freshman year. We set goals we knew we could accomplish. But can we do more? Is more reachable? I found myself asking that exact same question when my last semester came to a close. It meant that summer was here! You know that feeling, on the last day of school when you check out of your locker and step through those doors for the last time in about three months. “FREEDOM!” Who knows what I am talking about? I left school, returned home and began to wonder what I should do next. I realized that I wanted to set a huge goal for the summer. But what? Most of the goals that I have set in my life are things that I knew that I could do. Goals that were kinda easy. Goals that let me… settle. This time, I wanted to do something different. I was still uncertain until I sat down to watch some TV. Then, it hit me like a bag of show feed…a commercial about the Sioux Falls Marathon came on. I wonder if I can spell that. M-A-R-A- T-H-O-N…Marathon! At that moment, I told my family my new goal: “I am going to run a half marathon on Sept. 12th in Sioux Falls.” Now let’s be real clear… it is pretty evident that I do not look like a runner in any way shape or form. And it was at this point that I realized that I had a phobia: passoutonroadaphobia. The feat of running 13.1 miles seemed highly unlikely for me. In fact, I honestly thought that it was flat out crazy. I mean really? Can someone my build even do it? I made up my mind that I was going to try my best and just see what happened. I kept to a long and rigorous training