Sound advice from my GrandParents

Today was an interesting day in that I was thinking about sound advice that I received from my grandparents when I was still in grammar school. They both told me that I needed to apply myself so that when I became a worker that I would be a long sleeve not a short sleeve. To this day I still wear long sleeves to work, with an undershirt even in the summer when it is almost 120 degrees outside.

At first I did not know what they were talking about until I took a look at where they were working, on the factory line, then they pointed it that the supervisors and managers were all wearing long sleeve shirts. This was their way of making sure that my education was not wasted. So as much as I may try not to be a leader, I can't run from it as it is what I had been taught to be.

I was reflecting on a day when my cousin and I allowed some of the neighborhood kids to talk us into losing our minds (Fighting one another in front of our grandparents home, when GRANDDADDY was there).  The advice from that day stuck with me as well as the beating that we got. This was the one and only time that I can recall my Grandfather beating me like I just stole something from him.  But back to the advice that he gave us, he explained that no matter what happened in the world we were family and we had to have each others back. We were to be honest with each other and pull the other up when they fell. This was the rungs on a ladder speech.  Now if you had ever met my Grandfather, you would not have heard him give too many speeches, especially about family.  For he had cut us off from the family that he did not like. So I make sure that when I vacate a rung, that my hand is out to help the next person climb the ladder. You must build success so that others can follow you as well as allow them to learn from your mistakes. Mentoring is never wasted on those that want it. He also pointed out that friends come and go, but family are the only ones that will be there when the going is hard or you have nothing at all but the clothes on your back.  This was pretty heavy for a 8-9 year old to grasp. But as you can image, when a man of few words decide to share, you need to hold on to them with all the life you have.

I never thought about what little education that my Grandparents had because of the way that they focused on making sure that we stayed in school. When I was a pre-teen and thought that I know everything there was out there, I started to skip classes and school.  My Grandfather found me at home watching TV, no beating, no major lecture. He just wanted me to know that he was there for me whenever I needed him and that there was nothing that I could ever do that was new and a surprise to him, so I use that same line on my children today.  knowledge is not something that you should throw away, whereas some of your knowledge is obtained through formal education, the bulk is a life-lesson that you could pay dearly for if you aren't careful.

What legacy do you stand on? I stand on one that is full of courage, love and truth.

"May your mind never become a dull playground"

Opening statement

As a child people gave me nicknames like Egghead, geek, nerd and Poindexter, etc. I was always curious as to why they pick those.  Now as an adult, I can understand why. I was inept at being myself and placed my own desires to be perfect on them. They saw that as being unsocial and I just kept on doing what I did which was to go deeper into sports and books. I found most of my educational studies to be easy and just coasted through most of my classes, in High School  I was enrolled in advance classes where I continued to coast for a year until I saw that just being in those classes was putting a deeper wedge between where I was and where I thought I wanted to be. I even have a friend that calls me Dr. Spock  from the Star Trek show.

I offset that awkwardness by participating in sports; football, baseball, basketball, track.  I even tried out for peewee hockey because my mother wanted me to be happy and let me try anything that my heart desired.  I was an old man trapped in a young man's body.   There are times that I feel as though I had been born in the wrong era.

From time to time, I have to reflect on the things that people have asked me about.  Some of them go back to when computers were more expensive and not everyone had access. How do you create link boxes or a drop down list, for example in excel.  I would go through the steps one by one for them.  Today I am more incline to tell them to perform a search using the "?" icon in excel or give them the URL to Microsoft's online learning website.

The old adage of teaching someone to fish versus giving them the fish.  I've reached my turning point and have come to understand that I am not responsible for helping everyone when they are not wanting to help themselves.  I am not speaking about someone new to technology, but the ones that believes it saves them time to ask someone for the answer instead of taking the time to look it up because they believe the person that they are talking to is a walking book of wealth and over-abundance of knowledge.

 A little more background to why others my call me a know-it-all, I have a B.S in Engineering and hold two Master's degree.  Still looking into obtaining the coveted Ph.D down the near road, so that people will have the opportunity to call me Dr. or Professor.

"May your mind never become a dull playground"