Anticipation Rocks!

When I was in fourth grade we had this pretty famous (at least: famous-in-our-classroom) object called the “jellybean jar.” The jellybean jar was a huge glass jar filled all the way to the top with an unknown number of jellybeans. The number of jellybeans was not actually a mystery. Our teacher had counted them before filling the jar and she knew Exactly how many jellybeans were in there down to the last bean. But no on in the class knew. So each day, upon arriving at school, each one of us got to take out a piece of folded paper and write down our guess, or “vote,” as to how many jelly beans we thought were in the jar, the anticipation building daily with each wrong guess, because with each wrong guess, we knew we were getting closer to the right one. And the person who eventually got the number right – if any of us ever did – would eventually get to keep the jelly bean jar.

Every day, I was exited to get to school and place my vote. Each day I hoped it might be the day I would become the proud owner of The Jelly Bean Jar. (I didn’t really like jelly beans that much, either way, but that hardly mattered. I would have displayed the jar on the desk in my room with genuine pride).

These days, it occurred to me, on facing the same challenge, a more saavy fourth-grader might just go out and buy a similar jar, fill it up with jelly beans, dump them out, and just count beans one by one to see how many fit into the same-sized jar. But it never occurred to any of us to do that, no similar thought ever entered our heads.

Years later, upon reflection, I’m glad it didn’t because that would have stolen all the magic. All the jelly-bean-count-winner would have won was a jar of jelly beans just like their store-bought one -- immediate gratification and an end to the jelly bean counting contest. With a winner declared, and without the possibilities of the jellybean jar, arriving at school each day would not have been anywhere
near as exciting or interesting.

Here’s a video with Miley Cyrus about the anticipation that builds on the road to always-changing and evolving dreams, or: “the climb.” When I listen to this song, I remember fourth grade and our Jelly Bean Jar.

( Hope you have a great day, whatever your "jelly beans" are. : )