From Slackers to Loners

It's true, I have become a blogging slacker.

I think I got a little overly satiated with all the writing when I was actively working on a book - something I am still interested in doing, but don't feel called to do right this moment.

Over the past 3 years I have seen a REAL trend toward slackerhood in both my own kids and their friends. Seemed that the smallest hurdle would cause them to just pack it in and try something else. I wondered if a lot of that was because of what happened when we moved here, a long healing period after the upheaval of leaving Lafayette.

The most amazing thing has happened, though, in the past couple of months: an awakening of sorts- a call to what could be- and people willing to answer that call.

Someone once chastized me because I don't think about all the reasons something can't work. I am certainly not some sort of magician and just think things into being, but I don't talk myself out of them either.

So what if I try something and it doesn't work- at least I gave it my all and now I know. Education is in fact, expensive. Both in learning about what you want to be when you grow up and in learning about people. I like the idea of dreaming something - thinking about how to make it work and then trying it out.

And the kids have started this same mindset. It is wonderful to watch.

When my great grandfather lived in Logansport, they ran a building and lumber company - Loner Lumber. That site is now Ivy Tech in Logan, and it still seems like hallowed ground to me. My father and his siblings are all college grads - something not every man and woman was in the 60s and 70s. A pretty impressive accomplishment for my grandparents to have 8 kids who were all professionals. But I digress. My father and his brothers worked at Loner Lumber when they were younger- planing boards, cutting wood, pounding nails and building lots of Logan houses. It was good honest work and I think it greatly influenced my dad's work ethic.

I remember growing up that my father would say that any job we did should be something we were proud to put our names on - that we would always be known by our work. I hated rewashing dishes or refolding towels- but the truth of the matter is that he was right.

And so it came to pass that my daughter and son were looking for work in a poopy economy and found someone looking for a crew to do construction and renovations on a foreclosed house. They took the challenge.

It would be one thing to say there was a conversion based on what I was told, but it is a whole other thing to see kids who have been floundering now elbow-deep in plaster and paint and wood screws. They really rose to the challenge, and like my dad, found self-worth in seeing the fruits of their labor. Now we also learned a valuable lesson about trusting people on Craigslist - they never received the remainder of their pay- but they did the work and what they came away with was more valuable than money.

Construction has been put away for the time-being, except for the little repairs we need at our own house and the odd jobs the kids get from friends. But the transformation has stayed.

I finally see- after nearly 6 years - the kids I had before we had to leave Indiana. They are confident and fun and industrious and best of all - enrolled back in school and getting on with their lives.