Be Someone

Short story of life change. I would like help with flow. Thanks, D.M.

Be Someone

A man was driving in the night under the midnight moon on the snow covered black top just at a steady pace. The question that comes to mind is, “Where was this man coming from?” or “Where was this man going?”. As the man came over the hilltop, he pulls his car over and gets out to take a seat by the highway. This man didn’t care that it was twenty degrees outside, and he was getting soaked from sitting in the damp snow. As the man began to think of what he just had accomplished, the only thing that mattered was the presence of serenity in the current environment. The same night I had stared into the woods off of the highway, I realized that the true journey is still yet to come.

When I was eight-teen, I attempted to enroll into college with high hopes of becoming something better in life. As I had come from a family with very little, I really wanted to make a difference in the financial aspect of life. With my dad being a foreman at a steel company, and my mother working at a grocery store, it drove me to want something more.  Within two weeks, I was dropped that semester by OTC, because I did not have the financial support to pay tuition.

 Even though according to the Washington Post, “Despite the growing need for increased education and advanced degrees to secure jobs, only 59 percent of students who begin college as freshman at a four-year college receive their diploma within six years. Students who come from low-income backgrounds are even less likely to graduate�"if they even begin at all”, I still couldn’t comprehend why this was happening to me. The worst part of this experience was the defeat I felt when I had invested everything I could into this dream. The hard labors of taking four advanced science classes my senior year, staying up past midnight studying after I got off work, and getting up at five a.m. to go to practice was for nothing. So instead of holding strong and pushing forward, I accepted my fate and had begun my journey as a lower-class, blue collar worker.

                As I worked in the dairy department, I learned that it wasn’t so bad to be a part of the lower working class. I had met a lot of awesome people that ranged in personalities, and gained so many experiences along the way. I met a man in my department that worked side by side with me, and granted the opportunity to use his vehicle to get a license. I also met a wonderful woman in the bakery that inspired me to embrace what I have and to be thankful.

                The bakery lady had beautiful blonde hair and eyes that were blue as the morning sky. As she shared the blue-collar lifestyle experience, we had begun to grow closer to the point we decided to move into a place together. It was a two-bedroom basement apartment in a building that was built in 1903. It flooded every time it rained because the sub pumps couldn’t keep up, and had no air conditioning with terrible windows, but we made the best of it.

 

Every time I would get frustrated about the old apartment, she would remind me of what was truly important. She would say, “Remember when we leasing this apartment and it was what we could afford, because I do. We held each other’s’ hands and just stood in the living room smiling. It didn’t matter that it was old, because we were in love, and this was our first place together that we could call home.  She taught me when we had nothing, we really had the world, and I returned the favor by showing her a thousand ways to cook Top Ramen noodles.

                She showed me that we have two choices in life and her explanation is compared with two flowers in a field. Two flowers are in a field and winter is coming and that would mean the end of the lifecycle for those flowers. One flower spreads it seeds all over that field and the other flower failed to do so. When spring came, the flower that spread seed even though it was gone, had made hundreds and the plant that failed to do so, perished forever. This analogy inspired me to proceed and try college again, and I made another attempt to go to college.

I met a floor guy when I was promoted to a closing manager at the grocery store after I started working on my business degree. He worked the third shift cleaning crew and was a very simple person. He drove a beat up maroon Pontiac Vibe and was very well spoken. I once asked him if he had ever thought of finding a different gig to work. He told me that there was no point in that because he was making enough to pay his bills and there was no point in him working a harder job. His reasoning was it would take away from his core values as a Christian. I had begun to evaluate the idea of Christianity that night and decided I would go in the morning.

When I had awoken in the morning, I got cleaned up and put on the Sunday’s best outfit questioning if this was for me. I went into the bedroom and kissed my wife on the cheek as she slept in on that Sunday. I told her that I was going to church and would be home shortly after service. In excitement, she jumped up and told me to not go without her. She had been wanting me to go to church with her, but I never would due to my views.

A preacher at his sermon told an incredible story of a poor Mexican fisher and the owner of the fishing company. The owner was curious what the fisherman did when he got off work. The fisherman with a smile on his face said, “Well amigo, after I fish all day on this small boat, I go back to my village, and I play with my kids. After the sun starts to go down, we then throw a big celebration, where we play guitar, sing, and dance. Following these events, I then tuck my sons into bed and kiss them good night, and start again in the morning.”

                The fishing company owner replied with, “You don’t understand! I can show you how to take that little boat, and turn it into three or four boats. After that happens, you could profit enough to buy ten or twenty big boats, and be able to retire!” The fisher man asked him what happens in retirement and he replied with despair, “Well you sell all those boats for a profit, then you buy a small boat where you can fish all day. After that you can go home to your family and have a big dinner with your loved ones. At the end of the night you can kiss your grandkids goodnight as they leave.”

The idea to be evaluated from this situation is the wealthy man ended up where the fisherman was his entire life. He worked and developed this large fishing operation, and spent all that time focusing on work as his main priority. What was the point of having the finer things, if they cost you the experiences with your family? This decision is solely based on where you decide to place your priorities in life.

That night after church, I went to the gym to work out to relieve some stress, and on the way home I took the scenic route down highway 266 to T highway. I pulled over on the side of the road and reminisce through the adventure it was to get to where I am today. I learned to be open-minded and to experience life from the floor guy, learned that a man with little has everything from the preacher, and learned to be valiant and push through life’s storms from the bakery lady.

So as I brush the snow off of my pants, I have to ask you, have you ever pulled over on the highway? Have you ever got out and just took the time to evaluate your journey, and where you are truly at in life? The best advice I can give someone who hasn’t done this, is to try it and you will be surprised on what you will find. In that brisk cold night, I found life’s true journey in the mist of the darkness.  Life is a baseball game, and it will throw you curve balls, but don’t let that stop you from finding yourself in the outfield. Its only second inning in our lives, and we still got seven to go to hit the grand slam.

Works Cited

Lamb, Erin. "Dropout Rate for College Students Driven by Income Inequality." Washington Post. Ed. Lynn Eakin. N.p., 23 Oct. 2014. Web. 18 Sept. 2016. <https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2014/10/23/dropout-rate-for-college-students-driven-by-inequality/>.