Every Saturday I get a recess from the stay-at-home-mom life and work at the golf course. I drive the beverage cart. A job I loved prior to kids in our first year of marriage. You meet a lot of interesting people on the golf course.
On one particular Saturday, an older gentleman (who appeared to view himself as prestigious – you can find quite a few men like this on the golf course) asked me, “What are your goals in life?”
The question caught me off guard.
I thought about it for a second. I realized that I have accomplished my goals and sputtered off something like, “To wake up happy every day and spend time with my family.”
His response, “The girl last summer said she was getting her masters.”
If I was caught off by his question then I was totally thrown off by his response.
I mulled over this interaction for a good couple hours as I made my rounds on the golf course.
As I sit and write I realize that if I were asked this question again, I would still respond the same. Money, jobs, and material things are not how I measure success. I am successful. I have a husband that I wake up next to and fall even more in love with every day. We have two beautiful girls who are happy and healthy. Precious babes that we are extremely proud of.
So to you, Mr. Prestigious, I write you this:
Life is not perhaps what you have thought it is. Life is the gentleman adjacent to you who is practicing on the driving range. He hits bucket after bucket of golf balls to help keep himself busy. He is a gentleman who is grieving his wife on the anniversary of her passing. A beautiful man who knows that money and titles can not buy happiness.
Happiness is watching our daughters play in the back yard for hours. They are fostering a relationship that will last a life time.
Success is knowing that the look my husband gives me, even with morning hair and mismatched pajamas, means unending and immeasurable love.
Goals come in all shapes and sizes. And while, funny enough, I would like to work towards my masters degree down the road, it is not ever going to be the first thing I think of when asked what my goals are.
In the words of Matthew McConaughey, “Guilt and regret kill many a man before their time.” This is my goal, this is how I choose to live my life: To wake up happy every day and spend time with my family. No regrets.
