What This Good Dad Did

June 18, 2023

I spoke to a brave dad last week who knows a little something about unconditional love and free will.  

He told me his son received some impressive offers from a few prestigious ivy league schools. 

Offers most kids dream about.

His son however was in Love and his sweetheart chose a school on the opposite side of the country.

He was torn between what his heart wanted and what his head (and culture) would tell him the “right thing to do” was.

What would you do? 

His dad gave him the greatest gift I can think of. 

He gave him his freedom to choose.

And you might imagine what happened next.

Like any good love story, the boy risks everything for love and follows the girl.  

And within a few months, she broke his heart.

He gave up the prestigious school, the Division 1 spot, and traded it for heartbreak.

However, he also got an invaluable life lesson. One no ivy league school could guarantee, and no parental advice could provide.

While this might be the perfect opportunity for an “I told you so”  Dad knew his heartbreak was the only teacher he needed.

After all, experience is our greatest teacher.

Dad understood that he could easily encourage or persuade his son to take the “offer” but he also knew that he had to step back and let his son learn by living into his choices.  

Dad knew that if he made the choice for his son, his son would not only blame him for whatever the outcome, his son would not learn the most important lesson he needed to learn at this stage of life; how to take responsibility for the life you create.

He followed his heart, he made his choice and he is living with the results.

No one wants to watch those we love, particularly our kids experience heartbreak, however, heartbreak is one of our greatest teachers of all.

Heartbreak opens our heart to the magic of being human.

The truth is, we are not here to avoid having our hearts break, we are here to risk heartbreak at every turn.  If our hearts are not being broken, we are not living.

Are you willing to risk having your heart break?

While we may think the lessons of life are in school, actually the lessons are in our life experiences.

The education of the heart is as valuable as the education of the mind.

It’s been my experience that if we do not honor the lessons we get from our life curriculum, we are doomed to repeat them until we learn the lesson.

Letting your heart break is one of the most courageous things you can do and it will always lead you back home to your true self.

Don’t limit life lessons to the mind, let your heart be your teacher too.

When we trust life, we trust all of life. We trust that every outcome is the perfect outcome for our individual curriculum. 

And the same is true for our kids….

With gratitude and love,  

Annmarie Chereso
Author, Speaker, Coach, & Meditation Teacher