If I knew then, what I know now...

Last night at my nieces graduation, a few of the speaches given really made me think. The school principle took a survey of the faculty to see what their career aspirations were when they were seniors in high school. Not many of them aspired to be high school teachers. And it made me start thinking about what I wanted to do when I was in high school. I have always had a fascination with the FBI. Maybe it was from watching the X-Files or Silence of the Lambs. But for a while I wanted to become an FBI or secret service agent. Now obviously, my career took a different turn and so far it's panned out ok. But I felt mad at myself last night not because Im not an FBI agent today, but because I never took the initiative to even find out how to go about becoming an FBI agent. I guess I was a lot more careless or lazy back in high school. I guess the principles speach made me mad at myself for taking the easy road.

Then later on, the school band did a tribute to the armed forces. When the band played the song associated with that branch of the military, members of the audience who were active or retired military were asked to stand up. My brother in law who served 20 years in the Navy stood up proudly when they played Anchors Aweigh. Made me feel like a tool for not doing any military time. Made me understand why some countries require some sort of military service from all of it's people.