Sometimes you just run across a person that leaves you with that feel-good inspiration. Kaige is one of those guys. I’ve never met him personally, but he knows how to win the day. You see, Kaige has learned to bend and not let unruly obstacles squelch his dreams.

The high school senior is a Boettcher Scholarship winner, a Leader Enterprise for Diverse America Scholar, and he earned the President’s Education Award. Kaige is headed to study aeronautical engineering at Stanford University on the option of full academic scholarship or full ROTC scholarship.

And the young man who is working on his pilot’s license and raised relief funds for victims of hurricane Harvey and Maria, has set his eyes on someday running America from the Oval Office.

Little to Dream About

But Kaige’s aim-high aspirations were not always on his radar. Not much was plausible for Kaige in his younger years. His alcoholic mother shot down his goals of any kind. They survived on a fast-food diet and Kaige wore the same ill-fitting clothes year after year. Finally, one morning he worked up the nerve to declare that he was going to live with his father. Kaige’s turning point focused him in the right direction. Up.           

Now, he wears a well-worn bracelet with a faded slogan: “Win the Day.” What a poignant message. We don’t have to get ahead of ourselves trying to solve concerns of the future. Winning at today advances us farther than stewing over tomorrow.

Tomorrow Can Take Care of Itself           

I like how Jesus expressed the Win the Day approach:

“Don’t worry at all then about tomorrow. Tomorrow can take care of itself! One day’s trouble is enough for one day” —Matthew 6:34, Phillips.

“So don’t be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time” —Matthew 6:34, Living Bible.

“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes..” — Matthew 6:34, The Message.

To me, Win the Day brings my attention to the here and now and the “hear what is now.” When I’m not meandering off worrying about my week and month ahead, I can listen to and follow the pacing I need for this day.

Thanks, Kaige, for showing us how to bend instead of break. I’ll give you a decade or so and then look for you on the presidential ballot.