We all move through life one day at a time but before you know it, those days can add up to weeks and months. We pass through seasons each year and looking back, we can all fondly remember many of the best “chapters” of our lives.
The earliest memories might be our toddler days. Then we headed off to elementary school, learned to ride a bike, and started making friends. Middle school brought on puberty and all the associated changes. We watched older siblings go ahead of us or led the way for younger brothers and sisters. Then came the high school years which might have brought our first job, learning to drive, and maybe even our first boyfriend or girlfriend.
For many, the next chapter was heading off to college to earn a degree. It was a chance to live away from home, build new friendships, learn about ourselves, and start to figure out what we wanted to do with our future.
Before you even had time to blink, that chapter comes to a close. You finish your classes, you move out of your first apartment, and you walk across the stage in front of your classmates, friends, and family, and by the end of the ceremony, you’ve not only moved the tassel on your mortarboard, but you’ve also moved your destination in life.
Next stop? The rest of your life.
One Chapter Ends and Another One Begins
This past weekend, my daughter Riley finished another one of her “chapters.” Some of my favorite chapters I’ve been able to read (or actually write) in Riley’s story were here, here, here, and here. All significant moments in her life (and mine, too) that I felt like blogging about, and each of them has definitely added to the autobiography she writes each day. It was a wonderful weekend in Columbia and we were so proud to watch her earn her Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education.
No one knows how it’s going to end but it’s been a great story so far. Might as well keep turning the page, huh?
Are You Helping Your Clients with Their Stories?
Every real estate transaction is a result of someone’s life changing in some way. As Realtors, we are all tasked with “solving problems” that our customers or clients are experiencing. These might be “good problems” like getting married, having a new baby, or taking on a new job. They could be “bad problems” such as divorce, foreclosure, or death. Either way, it’s some chapter in someone’s life coming to an end and it must be finalized before writing the next chapter.
This week, let’s keep our eyes and ears open, pay attention to the characters around us, and have those pencils sharpened. It’s not a bad idea to have some blank paper available, too. The plots will continue to develop, the scenery might suddenly change, and there could be something big happening. In fact, we know something will be happening. That’s how stories work.
Get ready to turn the page. There are new relationships to build, more problems to solve, and plenty of more fun to have before this book reaches its conclusion.
I’m not ready for it to end…but I am excited to keep reading.
