this may be obvious but... (lyn)

When Alexander was a freshman in high school, he aspired to be the class clown. Not exactly what I had in mind.   When Alexander came home with a C- on a test, his response was, “Everyone did badly.”  When I left the house to run errands he said he’d be working.  When I came home, no work had been done.  I became something I never thought I’d be.  An annoying, nagging mom. 

I got a software program that limited Alexander’s online activity (once I found out he was on social networking sites until 4 or 5 in the morning).  It didn’t matter.  I paid him for good grades.  That didn’t matter either.  In fact, nothing I did mattered.

That summer, Alexander went to Chile.  He came back changed.  He decided he wanted to get into a good college, and began working hard.  These past few weeks have affirmed that his hard work paid off, although he still regrets freshman year.  “Without it, I probably would have gotten into…”

This afternoon I bump into an old friend I haven’t seen since last summer.  Our kids were classmates at the same elementary school.  Last time I saw her she commented on my weight loss, and I immediately launched into the benefits of Weight Watchers.  She told me she had just started, and I wished her luck.  Today I see her and she looks the same, maybe even heavier.  She suggests coffee.  We “walk” to the local Starbucks and it is impossible for me to slow to her pace.  A very old woman on a walker passes us.

She tells me that she is still on Weight Watchers but that recently she’s slipped a little.  I don’t believe her.  At Starbucks I get coffee and she gets a coffee with a slice of pound cake.  “I know I shouldn’t have this,” she says sheepishly.  I want to say, “You’re right, you shouldn’t,” but of course I don’t.  By saying nothing, I feel like I’m enabling an addict.

Unlike getting into college, where you can work hard and still not get into your top choice school, WW is a guarantee.  Follow the program and you will, with absolute certainty, lose weight.   But you have to want it.  Like Alexander in 9^th grade, he wasn’t ready.  Whatever his reason, he didn’t yet have the passion to make the necessary changes.  He wasn’t mature enough to envision the rewards.  Perhaps the same is true of my friend.