Life Continued

Schooling has always been an interesting conundrum for me. I enjoyed summer as much as the next lad but I always yearned and missed school.

"Hmmm",  you say with a raised eyebrow and bemused expression. Perhaps peering askanced at these musings, as you continue "This explains much. An undeveloped ectomorph, unfriended (yes we just coined a word) with shy retiring tendencies. Yes the mists are clearing.".  I respond, to your possible thoughts with, perhaps my life would have been easier if this were the truth. But no...nothing could be further from reality.

You see, I come from an incredibly large group of extended family and friends. This caused, more a feeling of, "Please God, could I perhaps have just a little time to myself.". All Right, I must admit not really. Having family and friends about was normal, expected and fun. So, I, though an only child, had constant visits and live-in partners (Thanks to the generosity of my mother and the  prolific breeding of my fathers' family and less so, but no less formidable breeding of my mothers' side), with various first cousins and aunts until the tender age of fourteen. By then I was required to visit them, and I did, as a rite of passage, until my college years which is an entirely different and skewed passage of its' own. College will be explained briefly but it will be told in its' own setting at a later date. In any case, there wasn't a holiday, birthday, trip, or wedding that didn't provide multiple trips to many houses and a plethora of people.

Add to this an outgoing personality a natural affinity to sports (However I began playing late in life. I was ten before I actually was involved in external sports other than track and field, tag and the like), including a fine athletic build, natural balance and quickness. I do not say these things to commend myself. I offer them as truth. I also discovered early I was good with my hands mechanically and in boxing. Yes.. yes.. sports came easy but I had no direction by any one other than friends and family, so I did not move along in the natural progression of things. I, really didn't begin playing organized sports until high school. My father, alas, was not in the house and my mother did not subject me to her boyfriends. If in fact she had any in my formative years.

But academics, ahhh there was direction. I was given specific instruction in what should be expected and what I could attain. A chess board was put in front of me at the age of six and I was taught the nuances of the game. Books were put in front of me and I was asked to read and retain. I was directed to diagram sentences and recite verses. I was tended questions on various races of people and geographical points and history both European and American. Math and science and the physical world were required curriculum as well as philosophy. Yes life was good.

Late in high school, direction seemed to be lost for a bit. My senior year there were various suggestions made  such as ,why not go to Seton hall and join the medical program. Minorities, after all, are underrepresented and you might make a good ,token, err so sorry, candidate. How about engineering school, one can't go wrong in that area. No, then Rutgers' would be a great fit .. well then there's.....

OK my school guidance counselor was of minimal help. I wanted to go to the University of Virginia, UVA, but discovered, I wasn't accepted. This, was not, because of grades but because I didn't take the ACT. It seemed at that time,  although my SAT scores translated as high enough, it was school policy. I had asked my guidance counselor at the tail-end of my junior year, if it was necessary to take the ACT and was told nooo a waste of time.

I  actually could have gone almost anywhere. My grades and academic showings on the prescribed SAT were below Princeton and Harvard and that ilk, but good enough to get me in most other places. But for indiscernible reasons I went to the U of Dayton. Good school but not where I needed to be.

In any case, academic directives fell a bit more. I will admit, I also  did not seek it adequately. In fact after my graduation from college, the way in which students are guided, at the school changed. Most likely, because of the way in which I was NOT directed.

Ahh what fun. My dependence on coddling was my fault. No one else was or is to blame. My entire academic career I expected some great figure to direct me and  show me the next step. That stops "aboutttt" ..junior year in high school and it is expected that "you", would take control of the direction of your life...I...Didn't..Get..The..Memo. That of course was my fault and I accept full responsibility for it. My lack of direction in college was no one else's responsibility, save mine. Let's  move onward to my gist. Yes...I do have one.

As I grew older I realized in order to right my listing ship schooling could help me. I returned to its' hallowed halls and obtained a Master of Networking and Communication. affectionately known as a MNCM. Not satisfied with that I again entered the fray and acquired an MBA. Now says I, I have become one of the elite. Now my fortune has been made. The world however not only did not notice... it yawned.

I took a year off academically and metaphysically, to get better acquainted with myself. In those 365 days, I realized that degrees do not make the man. The "man makes the man" and anything that adds to your worth is fine, however it all starts with that core drive and belief, in what, you, as a man or women, are worth. Please don't misread, a snail yearning to be a tiger may have an impossible aspiration but through the attempt of achievement, the snail should, and I guarantee will, perform in ways that will set it apart from the other snails. This should naturally enhance its' lineage, I would think.

So future, legacy, achievement let's get to the "meat of the matter". There are paths that I need to walk and I have neither the time or energy to allow the past to slow or impede me. There are others that need my success as much or more than I do. I have acquired quite a bit and  I am in a good place. But it's not where I need to be.

Set your goals....Check...
Put yourself in position to achieve these goals..Check
Acquire Goals... Mont Blanc pen poised and waiting for Check to be acquired
REPEAT  as needed