Shinybass journal entry 03-27-22

Don’t stop believing. Ever.

FULL DISCLOSURE – I’m forgetful. I may have typed up an entry similar to this one some time ago, and if I have, I don’t think it’s a bad thing to think about this message from time to time, so here we go…

Hi. It’s me. We are in a chilly Wisconsin locale, which detracts from my bike time and forces me to type yet another entry about the importance of wellness and perseverance. I’m totally fine with that because one can only watch so much paint dry.  We are in the middle of a three-day run, which means one more kid soccer game I’ve missed and more of this fine land I’m afforded to see.

Speaking of kids, (AND AS I TYPE THIS SECOND ‘DON’T STOP BELIEVING’ BY JOURNEY COMES ON. That’s a bit of universe alignment…) this entry is a bit about kids, namely mine, a bit about life, and hopefully, somewhere in the middle you’ll find inspiration.

As some of you know, our son Miles was born with profound hearing loss, and when he was two we made the choice to have bilateral cochlear implants be part of our lives. This meant that he basically began ‘hearing’ at age 2. We drove him to school every day and made all his speech therapies, and gave up countless hours of our collective lives being stuck in traffic on a daily basis to make sure he had the best chances he could to flourish.

He’s now 5, and we just had his meeting regarding his advancement into mainstream school. I’ll cut to the chase – he’s going to kindergarten in the fall. Everyone was sort of talking around this fact on our Zoom call, and I made his teachers say the words. When they said ‘He will be in kindergarten in the fall’ I cried.

He’s been working his little behind off for years now, and his work is paying off. This is just one landmark on the long journey we are on, but what a heck of a day. To say he’s excited is an understatement.

A lot of you ask how he’s doing, and I appreciate the inquiries. He’s doing awesome. He fights with his brother, sometimes doesn’t like to share, and wants things his way. Typical, right? He sings, dances, plays drums, and wows me with his intellect. He’s reading on the level of a first-grader, and his math skills are better than mine.

Two of his favorite songs right now are the aforementioned ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ and ‘The Middle’ by Jimmy Eat World. This is where things get heavy and also tie in nicely with life.

The message of inspiration resides within  both of these songs; stay the course, stay positive, and more than anything KEEP GOING. It just takes some time, but keep the faith and press on.

My dear friend Emily told me years ago that the lyrics of The Middle reminded her of something her Mom would have said to her growing up. Forget the haters, be yourself, and do everything you can to succeed. Sage advice indeed, and thank you Emily for making that stick with me for 20 years.

Because now as my Deaf child runs around the house singing these exact lyrics, it really makes me pause, remember, and soak in all these amazing moments, like my 5 year old reminding me that if you keep pushing, things will happen. Like kindergarten. Or the music business. Or whatever.

So maybe in this one step forward, two steps back kind of world we are in you needed a reminder to just keep pushing. It really does take some time and you are in the middle of the ride. I know personally I need these reminders almost daily because it is really easy to fall into the rut of mediocrity. And you know what?

YOU are not mediocre. I am not mediocre. And you certainly don’t need to ‘wait’ for something to happen. None of the last few years has been easy, however, we will probably never spend this much time with our kids again, so love those moments. And hug them babies.

And if you don’t have kids, that’s cool. The pandemic has made a lot of us pause and think of what’s important. Work on you, and watch success happen as you continue.

All right, now get to it, and don’t let failure get you down. I watched Miles fail 100 times before he got something right. And when he got it, he GOT it.

Now go get it.

See you on the road!