The Perfect Plan

Author: kj
April 26, 2025
"Driving range tonight?"

That's the text I sent my son last Wednesday morning. I knew it was going to be a gorgeous day and evening. I also knew that his local friends were busy that night. It was the perfect plan.

"The perfect plan" - something I often aspire to, especially as a parent, and then more often than not - fall way short of it. I know that's the human experience. What's that saying? "Life is what happens when we're making other plans."

A pithy saying doesn't make it less frustrating.

It certainly was not my perfect plan that had my 20 year old taking his college classes at home and online. I though we had him successfully launched to a brick and mortar school, but after his Freshman year he decided the expense of going away to school wasn't worth it. He didn't want to mortgage his future with student loans.

Now he works full-time for a company in Harrisburg, stays connected with Wegmans by working there on Sundays, and takes classes through Western Governors University. I was worried about his social life, but he hangs out with his friends either online or on the tennis courts.

He has chosen the path that is right for him and seems to be thriving in it. This new plan is working for him. It just wasn't MY plan.

On Wednesday, we found out we weren't the only ones who thought it was a good idea to hit the driving range. The line for a bucket of balls was 30 minutes long. We left and tried another range - same story.

In the mean time we talked about school and life and work and family. After driving range #2 we let go of our driving range plan, called my mom, and picked her up to join us for dinner. When she asked us what we'd been up to we joked that we were taking our golf clubs out for a drive.

I don't know about him, but for me it ended up being a really wonderful time together. As he gets older, and with our combined schedules, there aren't many opportunities for us just to hang out. And so even though we ended up just "driving our golf clubs around" - in the end, it was the perfect plan.
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