I was able to visit my hometown over Christmas. While there, I was able to get in touch with a good friend from my high school and undergrad days. We hadn’t connected in about 8 years.
It was a bittersweet visit with him. As a young adult, the world was waiting for him. A natural and gifted athlete, he was out-going and made friends easily. He had a very marketable undergrad degree from a Big Ten School and he landed an internship that he parlayed into a great and lucrative job upon graduation. I was jealous of him then. I was still plugging away in school looking to become a social worker and he had this great job. As well, he had just gotten married and bought a house. He looked like a great success story and I used to second-guess my chosen educational and upcoming career path.
Fast-forward 20 years and boy oh boy how the times change.
He is on his third marriage now, run into some legal challenges for himself and he has stepchildren who are on a first name basis with the local DA. His once promising career evaporated years ago and he bounces around now in jobs that aren’t in any fashion related to his education, abilities or intelligence.
People making wrong choices, well, I’ve seen a ton of ‘em. I usually have a bit of que sera sera attitude when I see it professionally with colleagues or students. This one hits close to home and it makes me uncomfortable. I realize I shouldn’t be sad for him, or me either I might add. But, I still wonder what went wrong and wonder what could’ve been.
2 comments:
Doug,
Some people believe that everything that happens is within their control...I respectfully disagree. Many of the truly awful things that happen to a person (divorce, job loss etc.) are often not in your control. The only thing you can do is attempt to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get back on that horse. As you get older, even that gets more difficult.
you seem to be gloating.
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