Years ago, I had a shirttail relative that went to the Air Force Academy. I was just a school kid but he was an early hero of mine.
All I knew about the Academy was what I learned from television, or maybe a movie. It was focused on technology (at the time); and if you were into space and planes like me, as opposed to trains and horses, then it seemed like a great place. It promised to be fun—the recreation opportunities were endless, the brochure said. It had mountains, after all. And, cool buildings, like the chapel, see above.
I am writing about this now to explain how little I thought about something that would prove out to be one of the biggest decisions of my life. Life’s like that.
Once they informed me that I was also joining the Air Force, I felt as dumb as the pet rocks that were famous about that time for children and adults.
My point, again, is to offer up some simple advice to those who are younger, who believe every single decision is an earth-shattering one, and that if you make a bad one, you won’t be able to put food on the table…or gas in your automobile.
Be aware of every opportunity in front of you, learn from everything and everyone, make friends and mostly, take time to relax. One never knows how things turn out.
Admission: Robert over at MiddlezoneMusings has a regular feature on his blog where he asks for entries with the title of ‘What I Learned from.’ This month he issued a challenge to use certain words in our offerings, see instructions and his words here. Since my editor at US NEWS and WORLD REPORT only wants columns of 250 words or less, which is harder than you might think, on the above post I tried to use Robert’s 18 words with as few of mine as possible. It was a bad TV night so instead of struggling with a crossword puzzle or stupid sudoku which is what my contemporaries do, I am practicing hammering out ever-shorter blog postings. That is to your benefit.
18 users commented in " What I Learned from Things That Weren’t Big Things (at the time) "
That’s the way it works. Serendipity. Like Einstein said, “Coincidence is just God’s way of remaining anonymous.”
Then we sit around later with a beer at a class reunion and say “Whodathunk?”
Boy, isn’t that the truth.
not just the young—this is good advise for everyone—–after all—-who knows how long we will live.
I hope I get to make a few more dumb mistakes.
The key here is participate in life–thanks GL
I wish I could meet you at the reunion, Mike. Who knows what that might lead to…
with GL in common—ain’t life grand?
I would like to meet you as well
It’s true that many people fear making a career choice that turns out to be wrong. Result: They make no choice at all.
I have a 29-year-old friend in this quandary. She doesn’t want to commit. I try to tell her that it doesn’t matter what she chooses, really, because life is normally pretty unpredictable.
Oh, and your fellow writers over at U.S. News are not, I think, as scrupulous as you are with the 250-word limit. I copied and I pasted and I counted—some of those other articles are upwards of 400 words!
Oh, I would like to add that the little black and white silhouette thingie by my name in these comments looks nothing like me…..
Working Girl…If you would leave your picture in mybloglog thing over here —–>>, then we would all know what you look like…
I left my picture and I still look like a black silhouette thingie (it kind of looks like me, though).
I have no idea what to tell you both re: the picture. Conrad…nope this isn’t you, you have a flat top and your ears aren’t this big. You are much better looking too.
GL,
Read your article in U.S. News and thought you did an excellent job…..I also think Jeff Foxworthy (sp?) has nothing to worry about in the “Redneck” department, lol. It is different to write things for other people with them telling you how many words to use, isn’t it? My first job for a newspaper was in advertising and EVERY word had to be counted and charged so much for (depending on how many days the ad was to run). The first day I (being the new kid on the block and taking most of the ads that came in on the telephone) took all my ads in shorthand. Guess who got to type, proof and turn out all those ads….one very eager beaver that quickly forgot all she knew about shorthand!
I don’t know how I got into that….guess it is my age (I blame everything on that now). I think I was going to tell you that writing stories and taking pictures was much more fun and just didn’t get around to it. Oh well……time for bed.
Corky
Besides looking for the opportunities in front of you, there’s another bit of advice I’ll share from a bit farther down the trail. There’s nothing you can’t learn from and as you continue through life that fund of experience and knowledge becomes part of your special mix.
For sure, Wally, good and bad, positive and not-so. For readers who have not yet visited Wally’s awesome blog and writings, visit him here:
http://blog.threestarleadership.com.
It should be name five star leadership, which is the HIGHEST rank anyone can obtain.
[...] … Things That Weren’t Big Things (at the time), by G.L. Hoffman at What Would Dad Say [...]
It goes both ways, right? Some small things turn out to be earth-shattering. Some big things produce barely a blip (compared to what we might have hoped or dreamed these things might do). This is part of the fun, the mystery, and sometimes the terror of life.
I think one thing I’ve learned about big, life decisions is that in spite of how they feel at the time (which is usually calamitous, humongous, earth-shattering, etc.): although there’s not really any such thing as a “do-over” in Real Life, still, many times God grants us a “that’s OK; try again”. Sometimes experience teaches us that; sometimes not.
LL–boy is this true. I think with age comes the understanding that big things are never quite so big and little things are never so inconsequential.
Robert agrees?
GL – indeed you never know.
This is the time of year where the young people in the UK are sitting school/college/university exams and their parents and loved ones are in the backgroung nipping their ears about what they are going to do next.
Message to parents. Think about whether you want them to choose what really interests them -because they will have to do the work – or what would make you happy!
Message to young people – if you set out making decisions based on the best possible information you have at the time you will be onto something.
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