Dear Luki,

Whenever I talk to others about your grandpa, one of the first things they mention is how optimistic he was. He could spin anything unto its positive side and brush away what, to others, seemed like the most difficult of problems.

“Oh that’s not a big deal,” he’d say about everything — form a huge scratch on his brand new car to a lost job opportunity. “More was lost in the war.”

Upon meeting him and seeing his eternally cheerful disposition, you would think that he’d never had a worry in his life, but that wasn’t the case. Your grandpa overcame many obstacles and faced tons of difficulties while he was here on earth. He was born to a family of incredibly limited means in a country ruled by a dictator. He tried to flee Cuba several times unsuccessfully before finally being able to immigrate to the U.S. One time, he and your grandma lost their house and were literally living on the streets when an escape plan fell through.

After moving to America, he worked day jobs and lived paycheck to paycheck, sometimes not knowing if he’d be able to make the rent that month. He went into debt. He did business with shady characters. And he was let down by friends and family members.

I am not saying his life was more burdensome than anyone else’s, just that, like the rest of us, he too faced challenges. However, he chose to laugh through them most of the time. It’s not that he ignored his problems, that’s not it at all. Whenever he encountered a bump in the road, he worked hard to overcome it. But he simply didn’t see the point of moaning and groaning about it first. After all, sitting around feeling sorry for one’s self doesn’t make road bumps disappear.

This is something I need to remind myself of everyday. For me, sometimes it’s much easier to sit at my desk and list out everything I don’t like about my life. To be sad and worried about the things that didn’t quite turn out the way I’d hoped, instead of rolling up my sleeves and trudging through the difficult times. With a smile.

I hope you always smile as you work through your life’s challenges, Luki.

Love,

Mom