Dreams and My Last word Re: Degree vs. Experience (sarcasm alert)

[Dan BRINEGAR <vr2link -at- VR2LINK -dot- COM>]

Oh, well, if it's *venting* yer after, here goes....

IN 1969, no one would have been able to predict what I'd be doing nearly
thirty years later. They had plenty of predictions about what I *couldn't*
be doing, and a fair amount of effort was expended  by
_The Man_ to make sure I didn't try anything I was sure to fail at and be
dissappointed over.

See, in 1969, two things happened that got me incredibly excited about my
future:

* The 101st Airborne captured Hamburger Hill for my 9th birthday, and a
certain war-hero sent me a letter explaining what it meant to be a soldier
along with a fully-equipped GI Joe and Jeep. Without the slightest doubt in
my tiny mind, I was gonna be a soldier.

* Two months later, Man first set foot upon the moon. Without the slightest
doubt in my tiny mind, *I* was going to walk on Mars.

That same year, our beloved public school system determined that I was
*slightly* retarded, and told me in no uncertain terms my future lay on an
assembly line somewhere. I was *strongly* discouraged from pursuing my
obsession with being an Army Officer or an Astronaut, told to stop reading
that "science junk" and read about boys my own age.

It took me ten or more  years to realize that all that being a bad kid
reading science junk  and so on meant that I *could* learn and *wasn't*
retarded: by then it was too late... My Army Recruiter called me up one
morning and told me my test scores showed I was a genius <blush/shrug>: two
of the most powerful women in the universe later  held the same opinion
some years apart... I figure I'm a little zealous, a fair writer, but
otherwise normal <smile>.

I wasn't gonna have a degree unless I bankrupted my parents ( I nearly did
anyway, but that's another thread).

Through my own laziness, I failed to become an Army Officer, and through
believing people without imaginations, It was too late to catch up on the
math, physics,  and engineering I should have studied while in High-School
or in the Service.

Fortunately, the Internet came along and just happened to use almost every
skill I'd developed over the years: and no one had predicted the Internet
when I needed to start planning my future. So there *that* is....

Oh, and what about my Detroit Cousins who were gonna work on the Line at GM
right after the Service?

They waited *six years* for a slot to open on the line: It never did...

Guess where they're working now?

The 'Net....

What's this got to do with "letting" your children go to college? I wanna
make sure to point out that you MUST MAKE SURE never to LET _anyone_  CRUSH
your children's dreams!

So, suffering from the "IF only..." fallacy and succumbing to the
inevitably poisonous result -- I flash back to the day in the fourth grade
when my eyes glazed over while trying to understand what the teacher was
telling us about reducing fractions or some such - "Brinegar! Get OUT! Go
sit outside! Yer *never* gonna be an astronaut! You can't even understand
simple MATH!!!!" <SFX: classroom laughter>

But everyday lately  I get to see Matt Golombec (sp) gleefully sharing the
ultra-kewl stuff their neat-o machines helped them find out about Mars that
morning, and I share his joy and excitement.... and I also occasionally
think "Gosh, if only..."

Recognize and support your children's dreams.... whatever they are...
encourage them to keep following the dream as they get older and are
tempted to follow whatever "easy" path others might suggest.... your kids
might not thank you for it right away, but someday they probably will,
especially if they're making a satisfying living still pursuing their
dreams...

NO ONE can predict what's going to be "practical" thirty years from now...
but I know that a certain seven-year-old who hasn't told me anything about
what she wants to be when she grows up will certainly have something to
share by then.... her Mommy teaches college, so ya never know: maybe she'll
walk on Mars.

Oh, and thanks, Dad!

Chris Daunhauer wrote:

>Sorry, I can't resist.
>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>To all you wonderful folks who are wildly successful *without* a degree:
>*Don't* let your kids go to college.  <snip>
>They'll thank you; trust me.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>venting process completed.

I couldn't resist either. Of course, my  preceding message relates to
technical communication in only the most oblique fashion, as oblique as the
path that brought me here.

dan'l

-------------------------------------------------------------
Dan Brinegar   Information Developer/Research Droid/Mac Guy
http://www.vr2link.com

Who was it that said:
"I believe the only way to get the scale of change we really need is
to focus on educating citizens so they have the principles,
the framework and the tools necessary to effect change on their own."

vr2link -at- vr2link -dot- com     -- CCDB Vr2Link
                                         Performance S u p p o r t Svcs.

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