My 10 year-old son asked me why I have a rusty old flat iron on my dresser. He suggested I get rid of it because it was ugly. I told him it served as a reminder to a valuable lesson his great-grandfather taught me while I was home visiting from college.

My grandfather was an engineer on the railroad. He loved all things trains. He collected trains, his driveway was lined with train rails, and railroad ties were repurposed as retaining walls.

He lived next door to my aunt. One day we were standing in her driveway talking about some old rails he put in the woods years prior. She told him they weren’t there, and after a little back and forth, he shrugged and walked away. He quietly went about the rest of his day.

I believed they were there, so a week or so later I rented a metal detector, brought it over to my grandpa’s house, and off we went. He asked me to stay back when we got closer to the woods because the area was full of thorns and prickers. He went deeper into the trees, and I lost sight of him.

When he came out a little while later, he was dirty, his white t-shirt was torn, and he was bleeding from the scratches and cuts on his arms. But he was grinning.

We started back up to the house, and my aunt came out to see what we were doing. I told her that we were hunting for the rails. “Well, did you find them?” she asked my grandfather. “Nope,” he said, “but I found this.” And he held up the rusty flat iron. The look on her face was a smug “I told you so” and she turned around and walked back to her house.

I said, “Grandpa, why didn’t you tell her you found them?” He said, “I know they are there, and that is all that matters.”

When was the last time you knew something to be right, and people were telling you otherwise? Did you argue with them? Did you get angry? Did you go out of your way to prove them wrong? Where is the benefit in that? So many times, it’s best to just let things go, and be content in knowing you are right.

I keep that rusty old flat iron next to a picture of my grandfather as a reminder to always believe and trust in myself; to not allow the doubters sway my actions.

And if she hasn’t already, I bet someday my aunt will find those old train rails back in the woods and think, “Wow, he was right all along.” Because really if you think about it, eventually that is what happens. The person who is wrong eventually realizes they were wrong, we just aren’t usually there to witness it.

Time has a way of uncovering truths. The fact that it could take three days or 40 years doesn’t matter. All that should matter is that YOU know you are right. Be content in that knowledge.

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Amy Gilpin, Associate Broker, Manager, ABR.
Fourteen years of helping clients. Six years of helping agents. All for this crazy thing we call real estate.
Production Realty 517-879-4141 Amy@ProductionRealty.com

 

 

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