A piece of advice I have never given a child is, “Don’t get
your hopes up.” I actually struggle with the idea of giving that kind of advice
to anyone. Why wouldn’t one want to get one’s hopes up?
I remember a time in my early 20’s when I met a woman, a professor,
who had been raised with no hope for a better life. I was sitting in her class
and she told me and the other students, that the difference between us, and the
students she had taught for the bulk of her career, was that we had this hope
that life would be better in the future. This took me aback and has stayed with
me all of these years. I had never known anyone who verbalized this and then
proceeded to behave without hope. I wondered how she carried on in life or
earned her degrees? How did she decide to have babies and what did she teach
them about their future? For me, these are all hopeful activities.
Hope is a verb, an action word and something that I
practise. It is not an idea that floats out in the distance like in a Sandra
Bullock movie with the same name, but something that I can latch onto readily. This
year, when the kids tell me about a goal, endeavour or challenge, I’m going to
say, “Get your hopes up!” And, I will mean it. I think I have always meant it.
I wish everyone a hopeful 2014!
~ Ellyn
