The Elusive White House

I have a bunch of other goals that aren't on my goal list. I just keep them in my head, and they are more like hopes and desires. Places I want to go, people I want to meet, etc. If I were to really list all of my hopes and desires, the blog post would be WAY too long, and you'd never make it through the whole list. One hope and goal is to someday take a tour of the White House. THE White House. Like, where the U.S. President lives. You know the one.

The White House has eluded me in my lifetime. When I was a child, some of my siblings and I were in this show choir group called Young Citizens of America. We would sing and dance and provide entertainment and learning about our national forefathers. We were quite the patriotic youngsters. We performed in some notable national buildings and landmarks, as well as malls and other regular locations. There was one Christmas season when we were invited to perform at a Christmas party and also the White House for President and Nancy Reagan. The problem was that not all of us could perform there because our group was too big. The leaders decided that they would choose a smaller group of us to perform with some alternates in case some of the group got sick or couldn't attend.

The day that the call came to our house to inform us of the group, I waited to hear if I would be able to go. I had wanted to go perform for President Reagan so badly. I had received a book about the White House and President Reagan a few years earlier, and I had become a little bit of a fan. Alas, two of my sisters were chosen to go with the other who was chosen as an alternate. I was devastated. I think that my parents had never heard so much crying and devastation from me. I could not be comforted. (Don't worry, I got over it mostly.) So, two of my sisters ended up going and singing and getting a nice picture of them singing for the presidential couple, which was signed by the President and Nancy. Yay for them!

Skip forward eight or nine years later. I was in a high school group, and my team partners and I had taken state in our category and were able to compete at the national level. The national convention was in Washington D.C. We went to our competition. One of the days, we had a chance to take a tour of the White House. The tour group was leaving at 7 a.m. or something really early like that. Well, I was dumb. I had been staying up pretty much all night the other nights that we had been there. We had made friends with other people who were there, and the dumb boys we had met were keeping us up (mostly by our own choices). I was so tired that I decided to get a few precious hours of sleep instead of going to the White House. Stupid, stupid teenager Cardine.

So now I have only myself to blame for never having taken a tour of the White House. I guess I'll have to go back to visit again sometime. Let's hope I'm not a dumb teenager the next time and that I actually take the opportunity when I have it. Sometimes life gives you amazing opportunities. You just have to realize that it's up to you to seize the day, ignore unnecessary distractions, and take those opportunities. So that's my challenge to you, readers. Is there an opportunity that you could be taking that you aren't, just because you're distracted by something else or just because you aren't acting on it? If so, I challenge you to take it and see how awesome it can be.