By Mark W. Danielson
You can find interesting people everywhere. Airports, trains, walking on crowded streets. All have unique stories to tell, but we’ll
rarely hear them because of our busy lives.
Recently I had the privilege of hearing a heartwarming story from a
perfect stranger, and thanks to her, I realized our upcoming generations are
not as lost as we have been led to believe.
On a recent ride from the Memphis airport to my hotel, I
found myself the lone passenger in the van.
My driver began by saying she normally doesn’t work more than three days
a week, but recently they had been calling her in for overtime. She was fine with that because her husband is
going to trucking school and her sixteen year old daughter is very
independent. Pondering a typical sixteen-year-old’s
behavior, I casually mentioned how some girls actually benefit from supervision
at that age. Thus began her story about
her daughter’s love affair -- with BOOKS!
The more she spoke of her daughter, the more impressed I became. Imagine a teenager who must be told to put
her book down and go to sleep! Not
surprisingly, she is a straight A student who wants to study journalism in New
York and then wander the streets of Paris.
When I asked what kind of books she enjoyed, the driver said suspense
and mystery. Since that’s my genre, I
couldn’t help mentioning that I wrote.
By my story isn’t important here. What matters is there are plenty of
ambitious, quiet teens who study hard, and these kids will become tomorrow’s
leaders. Forget about the drunken,
pregnant and tattooed teens who gain attention in the social media, television and
movies. Hopefully, in time they will
turn themselves around and be equally productive. Thankfully, kids like my driver’s help break
the mindless, self-absorbed stereotype and give us hope for the future.
Coincidentally, the next day I had the same driver. Shortly after climbing in, I told her about
this blog that I was writing about her daughter. She was so thrilled, I feared she would burst
with pride. At the end of my ride, I
wished her daughter well, but honestly her work ethic and eagerness to learn will
certainly make her successful.
For those of us with gray hair, it helps to know there are kids
like this one shadowing the background, studying, learning, determined to make
something of their lives. So ignore what
you see on TV and embrace our youth.
Thanks to them our future is bright.
6 comments:
I loved this post, Mark. My heart was warmed by this teen who had fallen love with books at an early age. May she live all of her dreams and write many wonderful stories during a long life.
I loved this post, Mark. My heart was warmed by this teen who had fallen love with books at an early age. May she live all of her dreams and write many wonderful stories during a long life.
I absolutely agree, Jackie. I'm also convinced there are millions like here, perhaps reading e-books, who will one day make superb contributions to our world.
Nice to be reminded, Mark, that there are plenty of kids who still enjoy that 'old-fashioned' pleasure. In fact, with the strength of the Young Adult genre nowadays, they may even be in the majority - they're just not newsworthy.
Thankss for this post, Mark. We see so many young people with purple hair, ear plugs, facial piercings, partially shaved heads and tattoos that we wonder what the future holds for younger generations.
Bill, Jean, there is nothing unusual about bookworms, but what's changed is we now celebrate oddity and ignorance. Like you, I'd also like to believe there are plenty of good kids hiding in the shadows.
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