Drive Your Career: Circumstances Alter Cases

This weekend our family celebrated my Father in Law’s 90th birthday.  What a wonderful celebration of love and happiness, reminiscing on special times and cherishing his life stories.  

Born in 1930 in Scotland, his formative years were during the great depression.  In 1939, World War II broke out.  His Mom raised he and his brother as his father served at war. He lost his only infant sister to an unknown cause.  From nine to fifteen years old, his life included curfews, bomb shelters, and gas masks worn to school.  These stories hit close to home with my own boys, twelve and thirteen years old, and my nephew, fifteen. Today’s challenging days of wearing masks, missed sports, and virtual school seem a little more bearable.  

He married the girl next door at twenty-four years old, the love of his life since he met her at thirteen.  They moved to New Jersey, USA from Scotland at the encouragement of a cousin who had gone before them.  She was a housecleaner, and he was a painter.  After being in the northeast for a few years, he came down with a good friend for a weekend painting job.  He fell in love with Florida, rented an apartment, and moved his family down the following week sight unseen.  We all got a laugh out of the image of the family of six riding from NJ to FL in a cramped Mustang.  The three older kids in the backseat fighting over who had to sit on the middle hump, and my husband at four years old having to sit on the passenger side floor.  Papa knew the life he wanted for his family, and he and his wife worked tirelessly to provide everything possible for their children. 

Papa and I have had many a conversation regarding his times of unexpected peaks and valleys in life. When given a potentially disastrous blow, he would somehow pull in strength and march forward. He said he learned a long time ago and has often said to me, "Circumstances alter cases." We cannot predict where life will take us, yet we can control how we embody the obstacle. We can digest the experience with the awareness of our control on how we chose to let it drive us, through empowerment, or devastation.

At 90 years old, he has seen war and peacetime, economic prosperity and downturn, love and heartbreak, life and death.   As each member of our family shared a memory with Papa, there was a common theme.  His life has not been easy, but he has always risen above and moved forward. We heard story after story of Papa taking a difficult situation and creating the best outcome possible.  He pushes through while lifting others up around him.  He is an inspiration.  

As I bask in the happiness of a memorable evening, I know there are many in midst of struggle.  2020 will live in history of one of great challenge.  Loss of loved ones, loss of jobs, loss of normalcy. May we all work to envelope ourselves in the lessons of these times, taking the struggles and fears and turning them into strength and empathy.   May we take the obstacles ahead and look for brazen trails of opportunity.  Circumstances alter cases. Bravery starts with each moment of identifying fear and stepping up to the battle. May we all, starting with me, live a little more like Papa.