In my last post, I addressed the issue of immaturity and how it can have a tremendous impact on how one’s life may turn out. I referenced a couple of former good friends of mine, whose smart choices – especially those made early on – made an incredible difference in the quality of life that they were able to realize for themselves and their loved ones.
Upon completion of that post, I realized that I had other real-life examples of this concept that played out before my own eyes, that involved two more great guys I was good friends with during our teens.
The first, was a high school friend that, similar to me, was one that many would say didn’t make what appeared to be wise choices. Like me, he never seemed to have had much positive guidance of any kind. Those around him and I back then, more or less represented what not to do in order to succeed in life.
To me, one of these less-than-astute choices involved a not-so-insignificant amount of money awarded to him through a settlement for suffering the loss of some fingers. This gruesome incident occurred over the summer holidays; a water-skiing accident that saw them caught up in a tow rope, severing them.
This money, rather than being put towards a post-secondary education or some other equally-productive investment, was spent on a new car, which, over the next few years would be driven into the ground. In fact, I remember being the driver of this vehicle one night when I dropped it into an overgrown ditch executing an ill-advised, three-point turn during a gravel run. Back then, our late night fun was cruising the back-roads surrounding our small town; our girlfriends beside us and a cooler of ice-cold beer in the trunk.
Fast forwarding forty-some years later and after happening across his social media profile, I learned that he had completely turned his life around by also enlisting in the armed forces upon graduating high school. I understand that in exchange for his twenty-year commitment to them, he retired with a generous pension. He then parlayed that experience and training – not to mention maturity, again – in signing on to a further twenty-year career with the Niagara Regional Police. He then retired from that force with another equally-generous pension. For those enviously keeping track, that have to rely on a smart device — or a stranger passing by — for the time, that’s two – count ‘em, two – gold watches!
Today he lives in a nice house and still cruises, albeit now legally in a big, beautiful boat over the long lazy summer. Along with his trusty dog, he routinely welcomes aboard friends ‘n’ family alike, whom he’s all too happy to share his good fortune with; the clear results of those long-ago great choices astutely made.
My last example; one of immaturity and maturity combined, relates to the 1977 film about something that took place “a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away”.
All of my friends and I went to see it and were completely blown away by the experience. I learned years later that although we had all watched it, hung the posters in our bedrooms and consumed anything and everything related to it, the impact of this phenomenon sparked our imaginations in vastly different ways.
After reconnecting with one of these friends decades later, coincidently the brother of one of “my two Dougs”, I learned that he had carved out a very rewarding career in the motion picture industry as a film editor. When talking to him about it, he says he knew for certain what he wanted to do with his life after we had all gone to see Star Wars during those memorable days. Upon hearing this, it again drove home the importance of maturity in one’s life and how important it is in making life choices as early as possible.
Walking out of the theater with him after seeing A New Hope, my friend was not daydreaming – as I was – about what it would be like to be Han Solo or Luke Skywalker. Nope, thinking maturely, he wasn’t interested in being like either of ‘em, but rather how he could be just like Paul Hirsch or Richard Chew!
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