Most people wake up and do the same thing they do every day. They see the same family and friends they saw the day before and probably do not think much of it. My grandpa lived with me for a year when his health was declining. Not one of those days had I sat down and had a good conversation with him. I was always too busy with sports, school, or friends to stick around and talk to some old guy on a couch. It wasn’t until he passed away that I got to see how interesting my grandpa was. It’s an important thing to not be so busy in life that you miss important parts of it.

At my grandpa’s wake I learned that before his hearing went bad that he was in a barbershop quartet and, before several health problems occurred, was expert wood worker. When I was younger I had these beautiful wooden train sets that sat up high on my dresser. I would play with my trains for hours on end in my living room and watch SpongeBob. Then one day when I was at my grandpas, I wandered into his shop and saw him using a drill press on a big flat square piece of wood. He was making a board game that my family played all the time called “Marbles”. I had always thought that we bought those boards from a store. As I sat there and watched my grandpa use the drill press, I looked around his wood shop and saw all these big tools and projects he was working on. That’s when it hit me that my grandpa was making all my toys. All of my shelves that my youth sports medals hung on, all of my train sets were my grandpa’s creation.  I’m not sure why I never sat down with him and asked him questions, or listened to his stories. Ever since then I have done my best to slow down and milk life for all it has. I spend less time worrying about little things that I can’t control and enjoy what and who I have in my life. I remember that my grandpa, although he would sometimes embellish a little more than believable, was a great story teller.

To my grandpa, everyone was interesting and important in their own way. He always gave people the chance to express their beliefs and ideas. You could watch my grandpa ask a complete stranger a question about anything, strike up a conversation, and create a new friendship with that person. He did that at least 3 times a week. He could find common interests, ideas, or beliefs with anyone just by having a conversation with them. Charles Dickens once famously wrote, (it is everything my grandpa)   “A WONDERFUL FACT to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.” What I learned from this was that it is important to give everyone a chance and to not disregard anyone. It could be someone you see every day or a person you just met. You never know what you will find out or what you talking to someone can do for them. Sometimes sitting down and talking is one of the best things you can do. Often my friends and I will go to a restaurant, eat, and sit and talk for a few hours about anything that comes to mind. Great ideas and thoughts that wouldn’t have been said are said because we took the time to hear each other’s words.

I had so many opportunities to ask my grandpa questions and hear his stories and I didn’t take any of them. Because I didn’t take advantage of the time I had with my grandpa, now I always take opportunities that I am given to do something because I don’t know when it will be my last one. Whether it be in a career, asking a girl out, or simply the opportunity to make someone’s day, it will always be a better decision to take the opportunity than having to live with what could have been. Sometimes you only get one chance to do something so don’t pass it up.

Life goes by fast and that’s why slowing down and taking the time to really enjoy it is so important. Had I took 10 minutes out of the year to talk with my grandpa I would have learned so much more about him and how things were in his life. Now it’s a little late for that and all I can get are stories from people who knew him. I saw him as old and incapable of entertaining me with his stories or passing down any useful information. When in reality that was just the opposite.