This I Believe

My Essay is about finding the good in all situations. The title really tells it all, plan for the worst things to happen but hope that they never do. I wrote a lot about my father and his illness and that it is important to keep a positive outlook in the worst of times.

Plan for the Worst, Hope for the Best

            While planning his own funeral my father looked up at me from his papers and very casually said “Well, it sounds like it’s going to be a great party…too bad I’m going to miss it.” That is just the way he was, nothing ever got him down, not even the fatal brain tumor growing inside his skull. If I learned anything from that man it was the simple idea of optimism. “Plan for the worst and hope for the best” he would tell me. Keep a positive attitude and live life to the fullest regardless of what may go awry during the journey.

           We have a bit of tree farm land in Mississippi and my father and Granddad took a weekend and went down there for a routine survey of the area. My Granddad was getting older and losing some of his ‘sense of self’. He turned to my dad in the car and said they needed to stop at a ‘dry-goods store’. My dad asked him why and my Granddad explained that he had just soiled himself and needed a new pair of underpants. My father chuckled and stated that he had a few extra pairs of underwear that my Granddad could borrow. “Lew!” my Granddad exclaimed “Now how did you know to pack an extra pair of underpants?!” My dad replied “Dad, we are going away for three days; of course I brought a change of underpants!” My Granddad, relieved, stated “Lew, you always were the boy scout.”  My dad rarely met a situation that he was unprepared for

         Planning was also big in his life. I remember how he would go on business trips and the night before he would lay out all of his clothing, separate piles for separate days, and he would try to figure out everything he would need. I on the other hand was never much of a planner. I feel that if something is going to happen it will. But to this day, before any trip, I lay out my clothes and try to pack anything and everything I will need for any situation. The result is not the lightest packing but at least nothing is forgotten. This practice is reflected in most things I do. When cooking I get out all of the things I will need for the dish and do not put them away until the meal is completed. When packing my bag for school the next day I put in things that I may not even use or look at that day but there is comfort in knowing I have what I need for anything that may happen.

           Even when he got sick, my dad stayed positive. The day he came home from the doctors with news of his cancer he delivered the update to us in a nonchalant way. He had confidence in his team and trusted that they knew what they were doing. That confidence never faded even when the news went from bad to worse and there was never a sense of bitterness or regret. Through those tough times I always looked to him and found that the silver lining never leaves, it gets thin and gray at times, but it never leaves.