I Didn't Have A Dream!

Yesterday I made my annual pilgrimage back to the old stomping ground for an alumni baseball game for my son's high school team. It was a pretty neat affair kind of a social gathering where everyone catches up on the scuttlebutt and a fundraiser, with a silent auction and other events designed to help this year's team financially. Before I go any further let me paint the picture of the demographics of Lee County, Florida, where this event was held.

Lee County was one of the fastest growing counties in the nation, it had room to grow and the lure of the weather and the lifestyle of the gulf coast was very attractive to anyone tired of the four seasons, especially winter. Well as nature would have it, on top of the attraction, we had two category four hurricanes hit and make housing a commodity, right in the middle of the housing bubble. Property values soared, and mortgage money was easily had, a bad combination. Needless to say, last I checked, Lee County was number two in foreclosures, just behind Las Vegas, as everyone went insane building "spec" homes to fill the need . It's affected the businesses, and the whole population, and not in a good way.

Back to our story...

Being the social butterfly that I am, I made sure to touch base with everyone I'd helped coach and took stock in where they were and what they were doing. The result of which has me up at 3 AM trying to get these thoughts on paper and out of my head. Most of my son's teammates are newly graduated or about to, so naturally my question was...What are your plans for the future? After four or five years of education, the most common answer was, I don't know. Followed by, if all else fails maybe I can get a job as a teacher. Only one former student athlete showed an inkling of promise as he was studying to be a civil engineer and planned to join the family business after graduation. I guess they call the successful the top 1% for a reason.

Here's the reason...

The rest of them didn't have a clue because they didn't have a dream of where they wanted to be. Without a dream there is no hope, without hope there is no future. If you have no aspirations, you've gone as far as your going to go. Instead of following your plan, your going to accept whatever comes your way. Now as a side bar...What does that say about who's educating our children?

God Bless!
Capt. Bill