Last weekend, I did it. I pushed the last little birdie out of the nest. It’s not like he was resisting or anything, and this week he’s learning to fly all on his own.
Our last 2 days together while I drove him to Virginia Tech was very special time. He and I have grown closer during these last few years working to get him into a college cadet program that will support his dreams of serving our country. I can’t say it’s always been easy. Along the way, I made him convince me that a military commitment was what he really wanted (seeing that my philosophy is more pacifist than military.)
He convinced me. And then some.
This is his first week at the Virginia Tech Cadet Corps, and it’s basically a boot camp of sorts for the young women and men who have chosen a military style leadership program during their college years. My son and many others will pursue a major in a technical degree and a minor in leadership (one of the only undergraduate leadership programs in the country.) The parents have been warned that at the end of this week the kids will have grown up a lot. They’ll stand taller. They’ll be more confident. They’ll have begun to lose that peach fuzz veneer of childhood. They say the no-nonsense treatment starts the moment he gets out of the car and goes off to be shaved and “processed.”
He and I were both nervous.
When we arrived at his dorm, I futzed around getting some of his stuff unpacked (so he can rearrange it later) and he was whisked off for “processing.” When he came back a few hours later, he was bald and a bit disoriented. This made me even more nervous since he is my stoic one, the kid who can be hard to read (even though I’m pretty good at it.) His disorientation was not hard to read.
We putzed around some more and I got up the courage to ask him, “so how was it?”
He leaned down to tie his shoe so I could only see the side of his face. He said in a flat voice, “it was intense, not like high school ROTC. They really mean business here.” Then he got a serious look on his face, thinking.
I held my breath, wondering if I was going to need to give him a pep talk.
Nope. In the next moment he got a rakish grin on his handsome face and looked sideways at me. “Just the way I like it. This is everything I want.”
I exhaled.
Then I was overwhelmed with a strong sense of pride. My son is “Leaning In.” Just like so many young women and men heading off to college and beyond are testing themselves and pushing themselves. Just like so many of my peers who are taking a “no excuses” approach to work, family and themselves. Just like everyone who is committed to a vision of a better world.
Power isn’t just about how much money you have or how many assets you control. The power that I care about most is the strength to pursue the hard road and define whatever progress you have on it as success. It’s available to all of us at every age – in every moment.
My son and so many other people inspire me for leaning into their vision of success, even when (and especially because) it’s NOT the easy way – or my way. They’re committed to it with heart. That’s all the matters.
If you’re leaning into the challenging path in pursuit of a dream and a vision, you are inspiring me too.
Thank you.
So who inspires you? If I’m admiring you and just don’t know it, please share!
PS- I was very pleased to note that while the number of young women in the VA Tech Cadet Corps freshman class was what you’d expect – a relatively small percentage, they held their own in the midlevel leadership positions. These young women inspire me too. They are making their way in a man’s world with pride and strength. And they still smile and are delightfully feminine when they can be. My sincere thanks to them. I know my son and everyone else will learn many lessons from them in the years ahead.
Check out the resources in the InPower Coaching EQ at Work and Soft Skills Research Index.
