The Places You’ll Go

“Today is your day. you’re off to Great Places! You’re off and away! ….. Your mountain is waiting. So…. get on your way!” -Dr Seuss, Oh, The Places You’ll Go!

I love Children’s books and I love Dr Seuss. My sisters gave this book to me as a graduation gift when I graduated high school in the year 2000. Then, sometime before Jordan entered Kindergarten, I had seen an article. A mother had picked up this book and had her child’s teachers write in it at the end of each school year. Then at graduation, the gift was presented. Before I finished reading the article, I decided to do the very same thing. I bought a book before Jordan’s kindergarten year was completed.

Each June, I would try to get to the school at a time that I could drop the book off to the teacher, without my son seeing. Which worked out to be somewhat difficult when I worked full time and remember driving out hurriedly on lunch breaks to coordinate. One year, I left it a bit late and the book was dropped off, but remained in the school until September, when I was able to pick it up again.

While Jordan was in grade 8, Covid shut the schools down, so I also had to wait until September and the teachers were back to leave the book with them. I had the final teachers that I wanted included make their notes in the last couple of weeks and with a family gathering on Saturday, we presented the book to Jordan! His reaction was truly priceless. He was not expecting it and had to take a minute before he could read the notes.

On the page that says ‘All Alone! Whether you like it or not, alone will be something you’ll be quite a lot.” This was written: ‘Being alone is when we take the time to truly know who we are, but remember to look at the stars and remember you are not alone.’ I love that note. It’s the kind of note that one unknown day, years from now, the book will be stumbled upon, the note will be read and it will be the exact precise moment that the note was written for. And in that moment, it is understood how much that teacher knew about life. And how this teacher saw his reflection in the student and knew exactly what to say.

This book was also an influence of a project on my YouTube channel, devonmcfaddenart. If you remember, from previous blogs, there is the message to the 2020 grads that my friend Trish and I coordinated and had put together.

It is a timeless book with a timeless message. An influencer and inspiration. Everything to look up to in a Children’s story.

Sending Love,

Devon