January 2021

This memory recently came back to me from years ago. I thought I would share it as I think often of the past and what is in the future. It was shortly after High School that I attended a tech school in Phoenix Arizona. Near the end of this time a bunch of us got together as we would soon be graduating and spreading all over the US. Most of us where young guys, though not all. Some were taking advantage of the GI Bill. Most of us were young guys who needed to get some kind of education in hopes of finding a start and direction in life. Most of us were quite a scruffy crowd. Most of asked each other “How did you wind up here?” And the big question was, “What are your plans now?”   What one guy said made a big impact on me. He said when he got married he had no idea how he was going to support a family. He always saw himself as “Just a dumb Mexican”  who would never amount to much. But his father-in-law saw potential in him and helped get him into this tech school. It meant a lot to him to accomplish what he did and that someone believed in him. (This  guy graduated with honors.)  This was a lesson to me that was as important if not more than the academics I had struggled through. Seeing value and potential in others was an important life lesson. It is meaningful for me to see this in others and in myself.