Grandson, it's that time of the year to share some thoughts

Dear Mark,

I have an announcement to make today.

I have been writing these annual letters to you now for 10 years.

Readers have seen your picture every June and have watched you grow up on the pages of the Daily Herald.

Grandson, this will be my final June letter to you.

However, this will not be my final column.

If that sounds confusing, it's because I have decided to retire in December after 50 years at the Herald. It's time. I will be 72 in June.

I won't go into my retirement thoughts today. I'll save those for that very difficult time in mid-December when I do write my final column.

I'll need the next six months just to think about what I'm going to say and how I'm going to feel when I finally do walk away from a job and company that have consumed my life for so long

It's not going to be easy.

But that's then. This is now.

Mark, I know you're a happy young man as you continue on your great adventure. Fourth grade at Randall School in Madison, Wis., is now behind you. It was a very good year.

Of course, it sounds corny, but life really is a series of journeys within journeys, circles within circles.

And like all great journeys, they begin with a dream.

Everyone should dream, even a fifth-grader, and then try to make those dreams come true.

For me, Mark, my dreams growing up in the 1940s dealt with sports. Of course, I wanted to be a professional baseball player. Who didn't at that time?

My heroes were Cubs such as Bill Nicholson, Phil Cavarretta, Hank Borowy, Stan Hack and Andy Pafko.

My biggest dream was to play in Wrigley Field.

A childhood is spent dreaming while young adulthood is spent preparing.

I want you to have a positive expectancy in reaching your goals even if those early in life may not be realistic.

I gave up on the baseball player idea and then decided in seventh grade on the baseball sports writer idea.

Fortunately, that has worked out very well.

Mark, I don't know what your dreams are now, but I know you will persevere and survive in whatever you do.

It reminds me of the story about the father who arrived late for his son's Little League game. He sat down behind the bench and asked one of the players what the score was.

The boy was beaming when he answered, "We're losing 14-0."

The man said, "Really? You don't look very discouraged."

The boy said, "Why should I be discouraged? We haven't been up to bat yet."

That's perseverance, Mark, and I have a feeling you will show this same spirit as you continue on in life.

I find it interesting that last Sunday your Little League team in Madison got behind 9-0 in the first inning and ended up winning 10-9.

Success in the future requires that same kind of perseverance as well as a strong dose of courage.

You already have had some success in baseball, soccer, basketball, football and running, but also some setbacks that I hope became valuable teaching moments. You're not going to have winning sports experiences all the time.

I want you to always bounce back quickly from temporary setbacks.

Mark, as you continue in sports, enter situations with confidence and optimism.

Keep your thoughts positive in those difficult situations because your thoughts become your words.

Keep your words positive because they become your actions.

Keep your actions positive because they become your habits.

Keep your habits positive because they become your values.

Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.

No matter what you do in life, accept 100 percent accountability and expect it of others.

I know you have all my column letters in a scrapbook. Those messages should stand the test of time and might even be helpful with your children some day.

Andy Rooney, writer and commentator, once said that the best classroom in the world is at the feet of an elderly person.

Mark, I hope you have learned something from this elderly person over the past 10 years.

I know I have had fun writing you this way.

I love you,

Grandpa