By: Chuck Miller
Kris

What can you do in five years?

There’s a lot of things that a person can do in five years.

  • You can watch at least three Olympics (or participate in two if you’re an athlete – or participate in three if you’re a skilled summer-winter sports athlete).
  • The average length of a professional football player’s career is five years.
  • If your TV series has made it to five years, then it can be syndicated.
  • You can attend college or university, and still have a year left over for graduate work.
  • You can plant a tree and see a rising sapling in five years.
  • You can purchase a car and – as long as you’ve made all your payments on time – have it paid off in five years.
  • Your child can start kindergarten after five years of life.
  • According to Star Trek, you could use those five years to explore new life and new civilization, to boldy go where no one has gone before.
  • You could film five Saw movies.
  • You could make one Cleopatra movie.
  • You could get your friends together, have a hit with “California Dreamin’,” and eventually break up after recording your final album to complete your contract.
  • Your thoroughbred horse can be born, have a racing career, and then go off to stud.
  • You work your way from the New York-Penn League all the way to a starting lineup in Wrigley Field.

You can do every single one of these things.

Yesterday, my son Kris celebrated five years in a special way.

He earned a coin.Β  A coin that has a triangle and a number “5” on the front, and a prayer of serenity on the back.

Think about this for a second.Β  In all that time – five straight years – he has stayed true as a good-standing member of the friends of Bill W.

Congratulations, Kris.Β  You made your old man proud of you every single day.Β  I know it isn’t easy, and I know that temptation is always around the corner.Β  But that’s why, for you, “One Day at a Time” isn’t just the name of a Netflix sitcom.Β  But you’ve got a good solid support system of family and friends and sponsors, and I know you’ve used them every time there’s been the possibility of a slip.

Five years is a damn long time.

The next hurdle to achieve …

Is five years and one day.

And tomorrow, it’s five years and two days.

Keep this up.Β  You are doing great.

You got this.

– Dad