That TYPE?!

Thankful and blessed. I thought about it again, in the past, the present and what the future may hold for my family. Extremely proud, seems like small words to apply my son for all of his achievements in school or how the future is so bright for him. To him, I extend the hope of his greatest success and deepest fulfillment.

I shared this with a friend of mine at my day job. Often, as these things go, I was surprised by a distinct difference in our viewpoints. She asked whether or not the school he was attending was his first choice. I paused momentarily as I suddenly recalled a time years ago when he was much younger. Back then he was a fresh young point guard for his Middle School team. He, like most young men, had no real interest in sitting in a classroom for hours, so he had challenges adjusting to the idea of academic excellence. That all began to change when he experienced no pass/no play, for the first time. The team suffered from his absence and a coach began to work with him and got him excited about Ohio State University.

As a father, I was simply thrilled that my son was finally seeing value in himself and wanted to work toward his future. My wife, on the other hand, took a far more practical stance toward the same miracle I feared would never happen. She felt it was too far and too costly. The idea of out of state fees and the dreaded 2 am emergency phone calls became her solid talking points for a while.

This snapped me back into my current conversation, where for the most part I was hearing the same watchful tone coming out of someone else. I wanted her to see where I was coming from. There is a story we all want to tell others about our lives, and the only way to know the details is by actually living the story. If a person can get their education, see the world and travel, then I believe they should. Then it happened.

She began to tell me what "kind of person" her son is. He likes to stay inside. He's not the type of person that would do well in a situation like an out of state college( the adventure of a lifetime).

Both of these people, my wife, and my friend were right in their concern and care.

How often has someone been so concerned about saving you from a negative experience that they lovingly torpedo all of the opportunities that would change your world?

We hear these warnings as kids, or from our friends and even our enemies and they stick. The people we are as children evolve because of the experiences we go through, overcome and even fail. However, years pass and now we take over the role of the negative messenger and consistently shoot down any chances of happiness, love, and success.

I saw this cycle continue, but I'm not going to be apart if it. I said what I had to say politely and jotted some notes for this post.

Go for it.
Find a way.

Set up a payment plan if you need to. Take out a loan if possible. It's there if you look.
Make it happen.

If anything, be that type.