One of the things that parents never see is when their kids grow up.
A few years back I said something to a then about 14 YO man in front of his father. "YOU are not a child anymore. YOU are a man. I will NOT call him when you screw up. I will deal with you myself. Furthermore what happens between us stays between us. If you f*** up will NOT rat you out to your parents. You're on your own."
The father sat there thoughtfully and finally he spoke. "Fair enough," he said.
He's 18 now and doing well. I think I have had to give him a raised eyebrow once and that ain't bad.
The other day I had a delightful chat with a wonderful attractive young woman that is in her first year of college and apparently doing reasonably well there. I remember her when she was a skinny kid with a wonderful optimistic attitude. It kind of scared me in a way because in my line of work there are only four kinds of sailors. They are dead, retired, novices and pessimests. That kind of youthful optimism is sometimes scary.
We talked about her hopes and dreams and school loans and a few other things and she seems fairly level headed. She has high hopes of going on for graduate work afterwards.
I didn't get into anything political because she's a college kid and I figure because of that she knows everything or thinks she does, anyway.
I didn't fail to mention that loans are loans and are to be paid back and it is in her interest to take out as little of a loan as she can. I think I was probably preaching to the choir, though.
I also told her that it was probably OK to change her major if she decided her present career goal changed but before she did she had best investigate the marketability of whatever she decides. She is smart enough to know that Woman's Dance Studies are not going to get her very far. I also told her about the guy with an MA in puppetry that I hear whining because he didn't get to start off at $175K per year.
Right now things look pretty good for her and I do hope she does well and doesn't do anything stupid along the way. I think she'll make out in the long haul.
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