Making Your Bed

I was just rereading Admiral McRaven’s book, “Make Your Bed – Little Things That can Change Your Life and Maybe the World”. I remembered how much Daniel and I had loved this story for all that it symbolizes. The story was originally told as part of a commencement speech that Daniel and I had listened to. After hearing the speech, Daniel sent me pictures of his made bed for days and asked me if I had made mine. The story could be interpreted as focusing on the small things or the wrong things but we looked at it as starting your day out “right” with an attempt from your waking moments to be intentional. Then, after you struggled with difficult situations throughout the day, you could feel good that you began the day with a commitment to purpose. When Daniel was invested in something he gave all that was possible, whether it was helping to install phones at the Academy of Natural Sciences when he was 13, or working at Structure and the Disney store and staying until the middle of the night to be sure the stock was ready for the next day when he was in high school, or building a radio audience for the bands he represented or working as a teacher’s assistant at Montgomery County College for computer classes and not always getting his work done so that he could be available to the students, or when planning data work for political campaigns or when helping to build a program for children with autism at Guiding Technologies. Attention to detail did not come naturally to Daniel but when it mattered, Daniel was focused, determined and intentional, with energy and commitment to change and fairness. He was also so much fun!