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A summary of, followed
by a response to, Cliff Schneider’s essay “I’m Still Learning from My
Mother.”
In the Newsweek essay
“Still Learning from My Mother,” Cliff Schneider talks about life lessons he
still learns from his 79 year old mother.
Schneider vividly describes his mother in her youth as being very
gracious but also very competitive and great at sports. As the years go by his mom grows old and
slowly realizes that she is not as physically young as she once was. Still determined to be at the top of her
game, his mother aims for a seemingly unfeasible goal: to score 200 points
in a game of bowling. Schneider
never thought his mom’s goal would be accomplished, yet one night he
received a call from his excited mother who exclaimed that she had exceeded
her goal. Schneider, a retired
freshwater biologist, learned a couple of
important lessons--that you can never be too old to set goals for
yourself, and that you should be open to everyone because you never know
what someone might teach you.
Schneider’s essay was very
descriptive and tells his story with the underlying moral lesson at the
end. Like Schneider, I am surprised
sometimes at the lessons I learn from unexpected people. I have encountered several unexpected
people in my job as a restaurant server.
These people have taught me that it is important to dream big and
accomplish the goals you set for yourself and share your accomplishments
with someone you love.
The other day at work, I served this
elderly couple who was celebrating an accomplishment. The wife had recently graduated with a
Doctorate in Sociology. She had been
a junior high teacher for many years, and she spoke of her early ambitions
of getting her Doctorate, a goal she had set for herself back when she
first started teaching. Listening to
all the bumps she encountered on her way to a Doctorate, I was surprised at
her ambitious journey to her Doctorate, thinking to myself that she is too
old to be able to do anything with it.
But then I recalled Schneider writing that, to encourage his mother’s determination
to bowl a 200-game, he just “smiled and nodded in agreement,” the many times his
mother mentioned this goal (6). So I smiled, too, particularly when I
glanced at the woman’s husband who sat there looking at
his wife lovingly, with a warm smile on his face, proud as can be. After they had left, I was happy for her
but didn’t really think much more about it.
Later that night, after going
home from work, I began to seriously think about this lady’s impressive
accomplishment. She had set a goal
for herself and was able to carry out her dream because of her
determination. Her age had nothing
to do with her goal, and I suddenly felt bad for thinking that because she
was older there was no point in getting a Doctorate. This lady was beaming and much like
Schneider‘s mother because her “. . . achievement [had] lifted
her spirits and made her feel young again” (6). She had a dream and she wasn’t too old to
achieve it. Her age was not the
issue; here it was a matter of completing the goal she had set for
herself. Her story was inspiring and
when I got home from my job, I was overwhelmed with the lessons I could
take from this simple encounter.
As Schneider said about his
mother, “Vince Lombardi would be proud”(4), as so
obviously was my customer’s husband.
As he sat next to her in the booth, it was obvious that he loved her
and supported her through her journey.
He didn’t need to say a word for someone to see how proud he
was. In life, it is important to
surround yourself with people that love and encourage you to go after the
things you want for yourself. To
share an accomplishment with someone you love, who has been there for you,
is better than to do it alone. This
couple set forth a perfect example of a loving and supportive relationship.
It is so important to
dream big and set goals for yourself.
Through determination anything is possible and you can accomplish
your goals. Having the support and
encouragement of someone you love is also important. As Schneider says so eloquently “…you are
never too old to dream and never too old to realize those dreams”(6).
Works Cited
Schneider, Cliff.
“I’m still learning from my mother.” Newsweek 20 Mar. 2000: 13. Social
Science Module. ProQuest. Spokane Community College Library,
Spokane, WA. 21 Feb.
2009 <http://www.proquest.com/>
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