“Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what is still possible for you to do.” (Blessed Pope John XXIII)
My oldest brother, Tom, was the salutatorian of his graduating class (a B+ in Band class prevented him from getting straight A’s). My middle brother, Jim, was close to straight A’s and he actually wrote the history exams for one of his teachers. So when I showed up for my first class at Brother Rice High School the bar was set very high. My first semester was awful…a solid “c” average. Although my social life was thriving and I was coming off a strong Cross Country season, I had taken my eyes off the ball. With the help of my siblings, my guidance counselor and my priest, I started to bear down on my studies and eventually achieved my goal of “straight A’s” my senior year. I truly felt that God had given me a talent I had wasted, but that would not be wasted again…and this has been my general attitude in all things ever since that rough start.
