Lesson Learned the Hard Way #235

I took out a bunch of student loans to put myself through school. All the way through school. As I was holding my MBA looking at a bunch of degrees and a bill for it all that was going to take me ten years to pay off I knew I made a big mistake. 

I thought I had to go to school with a name, get a big degree but the truth is I would have been fine without it or going just to a two year trade school. 

I learned much more from just doing and working with mentors that I ever did in a class room. 

Most of the textual stuff goes out the window in the real world once the complexity of organizations and people come into play. 

For my kids it is not that I don't want them to get an education it is that I want them to get the right one. 

If I was helping them foot the bill it would probably be something closer too...

2 Years of trade school or community college with Summers off to live abroad. 

I think living outside the us and learning practical skills would do most people more good than keg stands and frat parties.

The traditional path of life needs an overhaul. If we just do what we are supposed to all we do is shackle up with debt we don't really need following a dream we don't really want.

I spend 20% of my week working to cover something I was "supposed" to do. 

Shame on me for never questioning up front...but then what kid really knows they need to?

Dark Moment #1

 They say it is good to record these things so you can look back and know the truth aloud that you often wish you could brush under the rug. 

It was a summer about 5 years ago. Warmers than most. I don't remember the occasion but I remember the empty Angels Envy bottle that I through out the next day. 

I am a go to bed by 10 person with an airtight routine but was up later than normal this night. 

My routine was usually to let the dog out, brush my teeth, use the bathroom and let the dog in and we all go to bed. 

Tonight though I passed out before I let the dog in. 

We have sound proofing since we live so close to the airport so I didn't hear him barking. 

Around 2:00AM I woke up to the sounds of someone in my house yelling my name. 

Super confused, I looked at my phone about 20 texts and calls from my neighbors about the dog barking. 

Lucky one of them had a key and came over to let him in the house. 

They recently moved.

While nothing like that has ever happened again not a day went by where I would run into them in the ally where I dint feel a tinge of absolute shame from that night. 

Shame in front of a neighbor whose dog almost killed mine but that is another story altogether. 

Will To Be a Better Person

 

It is an odd place to be to know that you have to change, know how to change, know you will be better if change but still not make the change.

Health wise I am at a cross roads. I need to lose weight, a lot of weight. I walk bout 5-7 miles a day so it is not like I am missing a lot of physical activity. I eat well for the most part.

But I drink. More than most. If I am honest probably  5-6 drinks a night which usually leads to a snack before bed. The weekends will come with maybe more drinks, dinners, social events. None of it out of control but it is the thing in the way of hitting my goals. Of me being the best me and I know it. 

So much of my calendar is filled with these event it has become a part of identity I am struggling with changing over.

 

But like any act of courage, it just simply starts with change.

For the first time in a long time, I am ready to do that and ready for the consequences.

I have a date with destiny and my will to be a better person on the 26^th

Bed Time

 Somewhere along the lines I quit being a person who can be up past 10:00PM. 

There was no good decisions that happened and stuff isn't really fun if you don't remember it or you waste the whole next day because of it.

I am going to bed. 

Short Term Thinking

 Pissing your pants will keep you warm, for a while.

Keep your eyes pealed

 Keep your eyes pealed was an expression that always puzzled me for some reason. 

That is until I was watching my daughter peal a banana.

Your eyelids are like the skin of the banana. When you peal the banana you remove the barrier to the fruit just like opening your eyelids removes the impediment to your sight. 

The fact that the expression is keep them pealed instead of just keep them open makes me think that at sometime in the past there probably was a pealing of the eyelid maybe as a punishment for a watch guard falling asleep or something. 

That part is just speculation of course. 

Carry on and keep your eyes open for opportunity.