The hallways of Ryan’s school are covered with murals featuring inspirational quotations. One of his teachers recently took the kids in her class on a tour around the school to read and interpret them, and it left an impression on Ryan.

He has been quoting them back to us ever since.

His favorite?

Life is a book and you are the author

We loved it. We loved that he absorbed the quotes and that they meant something to him. When I tried to make a joke by pointing out that maybe he could use one of them for his yearbook entry rather than what he used last year, he got angry, telling me he was trying to be serious.

Ryan has become quite the inspirational speaker. Just ask him.

The other day, Veronica asked him who was playing in the NHL that night. It’s standard-fare conversation-starter around our house. Ryan always has the schedule memorized, and Veronica was genuinely curious if any of our favorite teams was playing that night.

She wasn’t quite prepared for the answer she received.

“There is no elevator to success,” he told her. “You have to take the stairs.”

In other words, “Look it up yourself, mom!”

For a kid that has spent much of his life being pushed and prodded to do things himself, to give the effort that will allow him to master a task, I can see why he took such satisfaction in flipping the script on his parents.

Still, I’ll take it. I’d rather have him turn into a walking version of a “Successories” poster than walk around quoting Scott Hartnell.