Take a Wild Guess

Photo credit: Google Images

When my children left for college, I wasn’t ready to let them go. Partly because they were my babies and how could I ever be ready? And partly because I worried that if they left, they’d never come back.

I left home one month after graduating high school and headed to Bellingham with my best friends. As I drove to my new home, I listened to a Creedence Clearwater Revival song called, “Put a Candle in the Window,” and each time the song ended, I’d cry and rewind the tape so I could listen again. The lyrics spoke deeply to my 18-year-old self:

Put a candle in the window
'Cause I feel I've got to move
Though I'm goin', goin'
I'll be comin' home soon
Long as I can see the light

Pack my bag and let's get moving
'Cause I'm bound to drift awhile
Though I'm gone, gone
You don't have to worry, no
Long as I can see the light

Guess I've got that old travelin' bone
'Cause this feeling won't leave me alone
But I won't, won't
Be losin' my way
Long as I can see the light

Twenty-three years later, we were in the car taking our son Jackson to college—to his new home—in Bellingham. Our daughter, Ali, had moved across the state the month before, and all I could do was just try to keep it together as we headed toward Bellingham. Toward another gut-wrenching goodbye.

As we drove, I told Jackson about the song I listened to the day I moved to Bellingham and recommended he listen to it. I wasn’t sure he heard me, or if he even knew I was in the car, because he didn’t respond. I wanted to play the song for him and make him listen with me, but the music would have been drowned out by my shuddering sobs. Also, everyone knows to tread lightly with a teenager who’s already annoyed by you, so I didn’t press my luck. I just hoped he’d listen to it one day.

The months went by and Ali moved home after spending a semester at a college that was not a good fit. But Jackson loved school. He loved his new town, his new friends, his new freedom. He rarely called, but we texted daily on our family group chat.

As Mother’s Day drew near, I didn’t know how to broach the subject with Jackson. I didn’t want to spend a Mother’s Day without all of my kids, but I refused to pressure him into coming home. I thought Chad, the girls, and I could drive to Bellingham to spend Mother’s Day together, so I texted Jackson early in the week:

“Hi, do you have plans on Sunday?”

He texted back: “Yeah, I’m sorry. There’s a church thing I’m doing with Stevie.”

My reply did not reflect my disappointment because I made a promise to never guilt trip my children. I just wrote: “Okay. I love you. Have a great week!”

“I love you more,” he texted back.

I had spent months practicing the art of letting go, but still I cried because why was it so easy for him to grow up? I wanted him to miss me. The Friday evening before Mother’s Day, I was watching a movie on the couch, and I heard Chad come through the back door and say, “Rachel, can you come outside for a minute?”

I turned around and Chad was standing next to Jackson and both of them were smiling. I screamed and jumped off the couch, hugging my boy like he’d just come home from war. He surprised me for Mother’s Day and everyone knew he was coming but me.

On Sunday morning, Ashley made cinnamon rolls and cleaned the house for me, Ali bought me flowers and a card, and Jackson was sound asleep in his room. Chad, the girls, and I went to church but Jackson didn’t want to wake up. Eventually he did, and he walked into church 30 minutes late eating chocolates from a table in the foyer which were meant for the moms in church.  

My mom, sister, and brother-in-law came over for lunch that afternoon. As we stood in the dining room exchanging cards, Jackson walked in and handed me a card. On the envelope, instead of “Mom,” he’d written, “Take a Wild Guess.”

Inside was a handmade card. On the front Jackson wrote:

A letter to my mother who

Without I’d know not what to do.

A Happy Mother’s Day to you!

“Read it out loud,” Jackson told me. And I tried, but nobody could understand what I was saying through all my blubbering and tears. Jackson’s poem said:

It’s sad to say there comes a day

When I will have to move away.

I know I say I do not miss

Your loving hugs and goodnight kiss.

But if I stay away too long

In my heart I hear a song

That makes me think of times when I

Would come home and you wouldn’t cry.

So light this candle up at night

And know that you are always right.

‘Cause I’ll come back within your sight

Long as I can see the light.

When I was done, Jackson handed me a bag containing five 3-wick candles that he’d picked out with my favorite scents in mind. And as I hugged him and cried into his chest because he’s foot taller than me, he said, “I listened to that song.” Then he wiped his eyes and walked away.

They really do come back. Maybe not in the way you imagine, and definitely not in the way you expect, but they do come home. For a minute or two, and then they’re gone again. And now, when I feel lonely and I start to wonder if my kids even care. I just do what Jackson told me to, I light a candle and take a wild guess.

Goodbye! Wait, Come Back!

Photo credit: Google Images

For the last several months, I've been preparing for a huge life change.

That’s actually not true. Rather, for the past several months, I've known that a huge life change is coming and I wish I could prepare for it, but I can’t. Instead, I cry all the time, I talk to folks who have experienced this change, and I read books about how to prepare for it—that’s actually not true either. I own books that might help me prepare for this change, but two sentences in and I'm crying, so I slam the book shut. I try not to think about it. Except I can’t stop thinking about it.

My huge life change is this: In just a couple of months, two of my three children will move out of our house, and out of our town, to attend two different colleges at opposite ends of the state. And I’m not ready to let them go.

I first started fretting about my kids growing up and moving away when I was still pregnant with my third (and last) baby. At the time, I had a three-year-old daughter, a two-year-old son, and my life revolved around them and their daddy. I recall sitting on the couch at our friend’s house, two weeks before my due date, when the realization first struck me--like sledgehammer to my pregnant belly--that my babies wouldn’t be with me forever. Sure, one wasn't even born yet and it would be almost two decades before they all grew up and moved out, but what better time to agonize over it than at a friend’s dinner party? 

When the thought hit, I felt as though I might hyperventilate. Like a turtle stuck on its back, I struggled to get up off the couch. My husband wasn't there to help me up because he was across the living room playing with our toddlers. He wasn't coming unglued because they were going to move out one day. When I finally managed to stand up, I waddled into the kitchen where I could be alone with my panic. But I wasn’t alone; my pastor was standing next to the sink, and when he saw me he smiled, gave me a side hug, and said, “Rachel! How are you doing?” in that kind, yet cautious voice people use when speaking a ready-to-pop pregnant woman who might be slightly unstable.

I held onto my belly and started to cry. I stood there whimpering, trying to take a deep breath, but the twenty-seven-pound baby inside me was keeping my lungs from expanding. Looking back on that kitchen scenario, I wonder if my pastor thought he was going to have to deliver my baby right there on the linoleum floor. Lucky for him, instead of going into labor, I blurted out, “What am I going to do when they all grow up and leave me?”

My pastor started to laugh (probably from relief that he wasn't going to usher my baby into the world). He touched my shoulder, looked me right in the eye and said, “When they grow up, you’ll be ready to let them go. Trust me.” And so I trusted him; he and his wife had six children of their own, and almost all of them were adults living their own lives. (“Grown and flown” is how some of those books I refuse to read refer to it.)

Over the years, my pastor's words have come to mind every time I think about my kids growing up, moving out, and leaving my husband and me "empty nesters."(Those books have an unending supply of fowl-related references.) Would I really be ready to say goodbye? Would they be? It sure didn’t feel like it, and as the years went by, I started to think my pastor was wrong. 

Recently, our son turned eighteen, and he cannot wait to fly the coop (See? Another one). In fact, sometimes it seems like he’s already gone. Over the past few months, his behavior changed: He gets annoyed by me constantly. He would rather be with his friends than with his family. He’s on edge at home. He gives me a hundred hints a day that he can’t stand it here any more, and one night in April, it all came to a head when he told me exactly how he felt. His words were hurtful to hear, but he needed to say them. The next day was the first time in my life I didn’t get out of bed for an entire day. I didn’t know how to handle any of it; I kept praying, trying to trust that God, as He always does, would give me the grace I needed, but I was becoming depressed. 

And then my sister, who saw my pain, sent me an article that changed everything. Written by a psychologist, the article explains how this family dynamic is normal in the months leading up to teenagers leaving home. The tension and friction are subconscious ways for the teen to detach from the family so that leaving them doesn’t hurt so much. I understood that whether he knows it or not, our boy is protecting himself from the pain of saying goodbye. (The article is fantastic and parents in my situation should take a look: https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/06/15/the-teenager-with-one-foot-out-the-door/.) 

Our nineteen-year-old daughter will move across the state in eight weeks. We haven’t experienced the same conflicts with her, but I notice her irritation and annoyance with me. She has a healthy desire to go find her way. I see her itching to leave and start her own life, and she will do well I have no doubt. 

But how will I do? I wonder. And then I take a deep breath, and I shift my thoughts, and I stifle a sob, and I imagine the amazing life that awaits my babies outside of this nest, and I think Wow, my pastor was right after all. I'm ready to let them go.

No I’m not.

But I will be.

My Graduation Meltdown

Kindergarten Graduation, 2005

As my kids were growing up, every time they entered a new stage of life I would always think, “Wait. Nobody prepared me for this. What am I supposed to do? I’m not ready for this yet.” And then I’d cry. 

My thoughts were always followed by—in this exact order—slight panic, a lot of prayer, reluctant acceptance, and then finally: excitement. Always excitement for the next chapter. It just took some time to get there. 

I went through this process every time my kids gained more independence from me: when my babies didn’t need to nurse anymore and switched to bottles, when they didn’t need me to buckle them into their car seats, when they started school, when they stopped holding my hand in public and ran six steps ahead of me. Each time they reached a new level of independence, I had a quiet, nervous breakdown in my mind. Allow me to now have one publicly.

Ali, my firstborn, graduates from high school in two days, and lately I’ve found myself thinking, “Wait. Nobody prepared me for this,” and I can sense that old familiar cycle beginning, reminding me that I might actually be a little crazy. But this time, things are different. This time, along with my fear that “I’m not ready for this,” is my concern that Ali might not be either. Did I teach her enough about life to prepare her for adulthood? Did I lead by example, or was I, more often than not, an example of what not to do? I don’t think I taught her how to iron; is that still a thing? What am I missing? Quick, I only have two days.

When Ali crosses that stage Friday night, she will cross into a state of independence that I don’t know how to navigate as a mother. Of course she’ll still need me, but what she’ll need more is for me to encourage her to be independent. How am I going to do that when I still want to buckle her into her car seat and read her books at night? I’ve devoted my entire life to being a good mom and preparing her to become an independent young woman, and now I’m wondering if I could just hobble her so she sticks around for a while longer (even though she has no plans to move out. See? Crazy Town).

But here’s what I know: Ali has lived an amazing life with parents who love her, who love each other, and who point her to Jesus. She’s responsible and reliable, she’s kind and generous, she always avoids drama and doesn’t allow people to manipulate her. What else could I want for her?  That she learns how to iron? I should teach her how to iron before it's too late.

I know that once all this crying is done, I will enter the “acceptance phase” and excitement will quickly follow. I’m already getting glimpses of it. I love watching Ali make her post-high school plans, and I'm thrilled that she has a desire to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in History. As I learn to release my grip, I'm excited to see what Ali will make of the life we prepared her for, knowing that one day I will get to buckle her babies into their car seats, I will read them books until they fall asleep, and I'll tuck them into bed. 

Because we’ll all be living together.

I'm Worried About My Worrying

Photo credit: Google Images

Recently, my friend posted an Instagram photo of her children that brought me back a decade to a time when my three children were little and life was full of firsts. In my friend’s photo, her two daughters sit on the edge of a swimming pool with two other children, while their swim instructor stands in front of them, chest-deep in the water. A lifeguard carrying a long rescue tube stands guard less than two feet behind the children. In the caption, my friend joked that she was afraid if she took her eyes off her girls they would drown, even though there were two lifeguards within arm’s length of both of them. This resonated with me as I recalled my children’s swim lessons; during their classes, I would sit on the bench next to the pool, hyper alert and laser focused, ready to jump in and save them. Instead of enjoying watching my babies learn a skill that would bring them pleasure for the rest of their lives, I thought of a thousand things that could go wrong. I was afraid that they would drown in the shallow end, surrounded by seven trained lifeguards and twenty observant parents.

                                                      Photo credit: Google Images

How many parents can relate to that deep-seated fear that we laughingly acknowledge as irrational paranoia, but that paralyzes us even still? I love the commercial that shows the well-meaning mother wrapping her son up in bubble wrap and putting a helmet on his head before letting him go outside to play. I laugh in embarrassment because I have been that mom, and I roll my eyes in resentment because I have also been the bubble-wrapped kid.

Now that my kids are 13, 15, and 17, I like to think the age of worry has passed, and that I’ve moved on to more sophisticated ways of screwing up my children. This summer, I had the chance to find out if I’ve overcome my affliction when my 15-year-old son asked me the following question:

“Mom, Can I go to an end-of-the-year bonfire at Justin’s house on Long Lake?”

[In a fraction of a second my mind processed the following rambling, uninvited thoughts:]

What did you just say to me? Are you insane? I’ve never even met this kid. You think I would send you to his house before I meet his parents and conduct a thorough background check? Besides, do you know how many people suffer third degree burns from bonfires each year not to mention all the people who burn to death? I read that burning to death is the worst possible way to die. I saw a re-enactment of the Salem witch trials and it was horrifying to watch them burn. What if that happened to you—burning to death from your toes up like a witch—how could I live with myself knowing that your last moments on earth were filled with agony and terror and that you called for your mommy but I wasn’t there? And do you even remember how to properly light a match so that you don’t burn your fingertips? What if you accidentally lit the whole book of matches on fire and it went up in flames and scorched your face? Lighters are worse, they can explode in your hand; they’re tiny tanks of highly explosive gas just waiting to blow your fingers off. Maybe we should have a quick refresher on fire safety. What if this kid’s dad is a child molester or his mom offers you meth? Wait, are his parents even going to be there? Kids might be drinking and then go swimming drunk and you could drown and drowning is a horrible way to go, too. Or, you could get hypothermia and lose your feet. I saw a man on TV who had frost bite and his feet turned black. Why don’t you just wait to swim when a lifeguard is on duty? And not at the lake either, I’ll take you to a pool so I can keep an eye on you, too. What if you went under while the guard was looking somewhere else? Will there be girls at this party? What if a girl tries to kiss you? I don’t even know her family and I don’t want to share my grandbaby with a bunch of crazy strangers, and what if she’ll be a bad mother to my grandkids? If she has even one bathroom-duckface selfie on her Facebook you’re not allowed to date her. Oh sweet Jesus, what if someone tries to kill you because they find out you’re a Christian? What if they force you to rob a bank or beat up a homeless man as initiation into their gang? What if they TEASE you? Nope, I think it’s best if you just stay here where Dad and I can keep you safe in our completely normal, perfectly sane home.

But what I said was, “Sure, bud. A bonfire sounds like fun.”

So maybe the worry isn’t gone. Maybe it never will be. Maybe I need therapy. But the point is, I hope the bonfire doesn’t melt the bubble wrap to his skin.

Running from Help

Photo credit: Google Images

Kari the service dog is trained to detect when her diabetic owner’s blood sugar drops to dangerous levels. Let the superhero-like magnificence of that skill sink in for a minute. This dog can actually smell the chemical changes in her owner’s blood. With such a powerful sniffer, it’s a complete mystery how Kari ended up wandering through my neighborhood wounded, lost, and unable to sniff her way back home. Maybe she got sick of her responsibilities and abandoned her family in search of a better life, maybe she was too scared to find her way back, or maybe she just got lost. Whatever the reason, for seven days Kari starved, froze, and drifted alone, too terrified to respond to our rescue attempts.

Many residents in my neighborhood use Nextdoor, a social network that allows neighbors to communicate with one another privately. One December day, multiple postings appeared from concerned neighbors about an injured black lab roaming the neighborhood. According to the posts, one of the dog’s legs appeared to be broken and she was extremely skittish, running away when anyone approached her. A windstorm was knocking out power and blowing down trees all over town and this poor dog was lost in the thick of it. I called animal control and was told that because our neighborhood is outside city limits, we had to capture and confine the dog before they’d come get her.

A few days later, as I walked past my front door, I looked out the window and there she was, standing on my porch. A faded red collar with tags dangled from her scrawny neck. I knew that she’d run if she saw me, but I also knew I could save her if she let me. I could feed her and warm her. I could protect her. I could bring her home.

Praying for a miracle, I opened the door and she darted across my lawn on three legs, her right hind leg dangled uselessly. I grabbed my dog’s food dish and leash, jumped in my car and followed her. She knew I was pursuing her, so she ran as fast as her three legs would allow. I’d lost sight of her but could still hear her tags jingling, so I followed the sound. I found the pitiful girl two blocks from my house eating the garbage that had spilled from my neighbor’s overflowing can. I stopped the car and held a bowl of gluten-free, probiotic-enhanced, beef and sweet potato goodness out the window. She lifted her head for a moment, hungry for the good food I offered, and then returned to the trash.

“Come here, girl, it’s okay,” I said in my most sing-songiest mommy voice, shaking the bowl. “Just let me help you.” I tossed her a handful of food. She lifted her head once more and looked at me with wearied, bloodshot eyes before limping away, too exhausted to run. I followed her through the streets, keeping my distance, gently coaxing her to come to me. But she refused the safety and rest I offered. I saw how much she wanted it, but she was too hurt and frightened; she would have rather died than surrender herself to me.

I’ve been where you are, I thought.

I followed her for forty minutes before giving up. Later that afternoon, my daughter and I scoured the neighborhood unsuccessfully, and the dog spent another freezing night outside. The next morning, my wonderful neighbor, Karen, who is involved with dog rescue, obtained a humane trap from the animal shelter and set it in an area where the dog seemed to spend a lot of time. Karen placed food inside the cage and neighbors checked on it often.

Within hours, one of my neighbors found the scared dog in the cage, read the tags on her collar, and called the owner who lives less than two miles away. When the dog’s owner learned that Kari, her service dog, had been found alive she wept so hard she had to hand the phone to her son, who also cried for joy. And when the family and Kari were finally reunited, Kari cried harder than all of them.

The vet examined Kari and her leg wasn’t broken after all, she simply pulled a muscle. Maybe she pulled it running away from home, maybe she pulled it trying to find her way back. But no matter how she hurt herself, Kari’s injuries will heal and she’ll go back to serving the one who loves her.

Meanwhile, I'm sending my dog to diabetes detection school. All she can do is “sit” and she's not even good at that.

What I Learned in College

Photo Credit: Google Images

“What am I doing here? I’m an idiot.”

That was one of the more positive thoughts I had as I found a seat in my first class at Saint Martin’s University. I just wanted to die. I was at least fifteen years older than everyone in my Religious Studies class, and they all knew each other so I pretended to be busy reading a blank sheet of notebook paper while they talked.

“Oh my gosh, they’re all geniuses. I’m dropping out, this was a mistake. A huge, mid-life-crisis mistake.”

Those thoughts continued until the professor, Sister Laura, took roll and started her lecture. We sat at rectangular tables which formed a square around the room. Sister Laura paced the floor, discussing historical figures who were killed for their beliefs. She brought up the holy triumvirate of martyrs: Jesus, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr., describing attributes they all shared. As Sister Laura circled the room, she asked the students, “Who else can we add to this list?”

A young woman raised her hand and answered, “Macklemore?”

She wasn’t asking a question, she was making a statement, but she was an uptalker, like so many of today’s youth, whose last word of every sentence rises in an insecure and hesitant finale.

“Okay... Macklemore. And who is he?” asked Sister Laura.

“He’s a rapper? And he like? Supports sexual preference?” said the uptalker.

A euphoric feeling rushed through my body; that was the moment I knew I was going to get along just fine at college. But at the same time, I felt sick to my stomach because holy crap, this girl was serious.

For two years, I worried and stressed and second-guessed my way through the required courses. I read 60 books, countless short stories, and dozens of essays, I wrote 49 papers totaling 369 pages, and I filled 8 spiral notebooks with notes and research. And I think I have the beginning stages of arthritis in my right hand.

I earned a Bachelor’s degree in English and I have no idea what to do with it, but at least I can cross “Go back to college” off my bucket list. There are actually only two things on that list, the other one is “Appear in an 80's sitcom." But since Diff’rent Strokes was cancelled, I’ll never get to realize my dream of guest starring as Mr. Drummond’s tom-boyishly feisty foster daughter, Tiffany, whose hilarious catch phrases put Arnold’s “Whatchu talkin’ ‘bout, Willis?" to shame. 

Perhaps it’s time to update my bucket list.

If you’re old like me and you're considering going back to college, but are intimidated by the mere thought of it, I’d like to share some things I learned that will serve as priceless nuggets of counsel for your journey.

1) The wisest, most intelligent human beings are those who, when challenged, resist the urge to announce how educated they are, or list the degrees they hold. Any time someone utters the phrase, “I am highly educated, I hold a [insert degree] in [insert field]...” the next words out of his mouth will likely be the stupidest thing you’ve ever heard. And I should know because I’m highly educated, I have a Bachelor's in English. 

2) There are four, and only four, topics that exist in Universities and shame on you if you ever try to discuss another one. Class, Race, Gender, and Religion. That’s it. Nothing else matters, you narrow-minded bigot.

3) If you’re lucky, you’ll encounter professors whose passion and excitement are so infectious that you momentarily consider pursuing a PhD until you realize that you want to spend neither the time nor the money required to earn it, and you actually hate research, not to mention you struggle with a severe lack of motivation. But those professors are fantastic. And few.

4) This is the most important thing I learned, so pay attention. No college degree, no amount of letters after a name, no pretentious academic-speak will ever impress me as much as my blue-collar family. I watch them build, fix, and labor every day and their skills are like nothing I ever saw in college. They read, debate, and grow their minds as they pursue wisdom, but can still build an entire house, or boat, or car. And yes, of course there is value in both fields; one just impresses me a little more.

While finishing college at 38 was one of the most satisfying and rewarding accomplishments of my life, it was also frustrating. I showed up with a lot of life already lived and real world experiences to bring to my studies, and those characteristics aren’t always welcome in a university where a specific doctrine is being instilled. Once, a guest-speaker told my literary theory class that many feminists believe stay-at-home moms perpetuate the oppression of women and cause more harm than good. How'd you like to hear that as a young twenty-something who doesn't have a clue what "oppression of women" even means other than what you learned in school?

There’s an excellent scene in Good Will Hunting where Clark, a braggadocious Harvard student, in an effort to show off, begins to regurgitate other people’s ideas as if they were his own. Will, a janitor, calls him out in a let’s-all-cheer-for-the-underdog scene, and he shares some knowledge with the phony intellectual that's incredibly apt. Will says to Clark, “See, the sad thing about a guy like you is, in 50 years you're gonna start doin' some thinkin' on your own and you're going to come up with the fact that there are two certainties in life: one, don't do that, and two, you dropped 150 grand on a [bleep]’n education you could have got for a dollar fifty in late charges at the public library.”

As great as college was, as enriched as my life has become because of it, I hope I never forget that it’s not the greatest. Nor is it the only way to knowledge, wisdom, or success. Whatever path my kids choose, whether college or a skilled trade, all I ask of them is they work harder then they ever have, and that they find joy in what they do. And maybe figure it out before they're almost 40. 'Cause I still don't have a clue.

How do ya like them apples?

The Need for "Creed" (or "Rocky VII" as I like to call it)

Getting punched by Rocky at Planet Hollywood, Times Square in 2008

I was exactly fifteen days old when Rocky won the Oscar for Best Picture. I remember watching Sylvester Stallone humbly accept the award and thinking, “We certainly have not seen the last of this film.” (I was a brilliant baby.) And now, almost 40 years later, Rocky is back for a 7^th time, and they can call it what they want but it’s still Rocky and we all know it.

In Creed, Adonis Johnson, Apollo’s illegitimate son, wants to be a fighter and is determined to prove himself without using his father’s name. Adonis convinces a reluctant Rocky to train him. Eventually, word gets out that Adonis is Creed’s blood and British light-heavyweight champion, “Pretty” Ricky Conlan, challenges him to a fight. Rocky fans will find no shortage of legendary training montages and a characteristic soundtrack that manipulates your emotions so that you want to jump out of your seat and cheer, but you don’t because you’re also crying. That’s the gist of the film right there, and it’s all you need to know.

But let’s get back to Rocky. Remember at the end of Rocky III when Apollo Creed calls in the favor that Rocky owes him? Apollo wants a private rematch, “No TV, no newspapers, just you and me.” The two fighters dance around the ring joking about getting older until, at the exact same moment, Rocky throws a left, Apollo throws a right, and the movie ends a split-second before the punches land. And for 33 years, the world has wandered aimlessly, wondering who won that rematch. In Creed, Rocky reveals the winner and now, breathing a huge collective sigh, the world can finally move forward. You wanna know who won? Go see Creed.

Let me caution you about reading reviews of the Rocky films. Stay away from pretentious critics who don’t possess the only quality necessary to enjoy a movie: The ability to suspend disbelief. Instead, go into these films blindly, with a child-like wonder, and you will never ever be disappointed. In Rocky IV, when Rocky defeated Ivan Drago and single-handedly ended the Cold War, I walked out of the movie theater with a new outlook on life because if he could change, and I could change, then everybody could change. It was the greatest film I had seen in all of my 8 years on earth, and I knew I would never be the same. When Drago beat Apollo Creed to death, as I watched Apollo lay there dying in Rocky's arms, I had to get up and move to the back of the movie theater because I was crying so hard. I hadn’t sobbed like that during a film since Elliot and Gertie said goodbye to E.T. three years earlier. I guess you could say I take movies seriously. So, when I tell you that these films are masterpieces, believe that I believe it. Critics be damned.

Like its predecessors, the new film deals with real life problems, and I was surprised how difficult it was for me to watch Rocky get sick (oh settle down, you see it in the trailer). There’s a scene where Rocky is laying in the hospital, and it made me think of when my father-in-law had heart surgery. As we stood around his hospital bed before they wheeled him to the OR, I experienced this ache in my gut and a tightening in my chest that I’d never felt before. I felt it again watching Rocky battle his illness in Creed. So maybe it’s all a little too real, but there’s a reason they’ve made seven of these films. They make them for people like me.

Creed has everything you can expect from a Rocky film; during his climactic fight against Conlan, Adonis wears the iconic red, white, and blue trunks (with a slight alteration) worn by Apollo and Rocky in the previous films. This installment is going to set a whole new generation on fire. For the next film, I hope Adonis travels to the Middle East and fights ISIS because, with Rocky’s help, he can put an end to radical Islam. Okay, that might be a stretch, but what I do know is that my infant-self was right, we certainly have not seen the last of this film.