Thankful Thursday: Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss

I can’t tell you how many times I have sat and listened to this book be read to me. You too have probably heard this story every year since kindergarten. When you search best books to gift I bet Oh, the Places You’ll Go! is on it. Why is that? I have wondered myself for a long time. Why am I thankful for this popular read?

Oh, the Places You’ll Go! is unique, there are few others like it. You can read it at any stage in your life and get a different message, and you will be read this story at almost every milestone in your life. So you won’t have much of a say in the matter.

When I was younger, I liked the balloon on the cover. I liked to daydream I was going on an adventure.

When I was a senior in high school, I thought it was cute another teacher was reading it to us, like the good ‘ol kindergarten days. The message: I was going places. I knew I wouldn’t see half my classmates again. I knew we were all going to different places. It wasn’t that special.

Then I received it as a gift. It was no secret I was leaving my job. It was also no secret I had a passion for reading. Behind my back, in one of the best secrets of all, one of my coworkers had the staff sign a copy of Oh, the Places You’ll Go!. To this day, it is still one of the best gifts I have received.

Then I read it to my class the last week of school. They were my first students and it was their first year of high school, emotions were high. That is when it hit home, it all made sense. I sat on the reading stool and held the picture book up as I read it to each class period for the first and last time. In each class there were tears, it wasn’t only me wishing them the best, but we were saying goodbye. In the moments shared with the kiddos, I developed a new message. Oh, the Places You’ll Go! is not just a rhyme of the adventures of life with advice peppered throughout, it is also a tale of goodbye. Goodbye from all those who want the best for you, those you will leave behind; those are the ones who read and give you this book.

Oh, the Places You’ll Go! the story that taught me how to say goodbye. For that, I am forever thankful.