Surfing 101

I need to talk to you.

You’re the one who’s a little worried about next year.

The going-to-college year.

 

The unknown.

 

You are taking the leap that it’s going to be good, maybe even great.

You are going because that’s the thing that comes next.

 

But when things are quiet.

During the pauses.

The enormity looms large.

 

And I am here to tell you that it is going to be all right.

It’s going to be okay.

Because coming of age at 18 is when everyone is thrown in the deep water.

 

Because this is the time you get to challenge yourself.

Not with academics, but with your adapting skills.

 

Skills like boundary setting and changing your thoughts and listening to your internal guidance system.

 

It might seem like they aren’t very important.
The skills, that is.

It might seem like there aren’t any skills to adapting, change is just something that happens to you.

But that’s our bad.

We all focus so much on academics, I can see how you would get that idea.

 

Adapting skills are some of the most important skills in life.

At any age.

Because it’s not just college.

Things keep changing your whole life.

 

Adapting is a lot like surfing.

You live in constant creative response to what is right in front of you.

Right this minute.

 

And like surfing, you don’t stand up on the board and do it perfectly the first time.
You expect to suck at first.
But with practice you learn.

And that’s how adapting skills are too.

You suck at first.

You stumble.

You botch a few.

And then you get smoother.

And eventually you incorporate them and they aren’t skills. It’s just one more thing you do well.

 

All this icky feeling?

It’s just how it feels to grow.

And you can even learn to look forward to this feeling, because once there, you will see that on the far side of this feeling the far side is oh so sweet.