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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by edblysard Wow, You got to present a case to the US Supreme Court? Absolutely cool! Andrew...thats the one place where you have only two options... You are either win, or you dont win...no real compromise. Awesome! Most of my "adventures" were because my parents taught all of us that the phrase "I can't" was a excersise in self defeat... Instead, we were taught the concept of "why not" There is a great line in the movie "The Untouchables"..Sean Connery is talking to Kevin Costener...discussing what they can do to "get" Capone... All Hollywood aside, when he says "What are you willing to do?", thats is exactly the attitude my parents instilled in my self and my sisters. "How bad do you want it and what are you willing to do to make it happen?" I must have heard that phrase at least a hundred times....and somewhere along the line, it quit being something my parents were saying, but became instead a way of living and making decisions. I got lucky, the opportunity to travel with my Dad during the last part of his service years was a fluke, I was in the right place at the right age, at the right time....but it did come with sacrifices... always being the one white kid in a room full of Japanese, where everyone had black hair and was a good foot shorter than me. The African sunrise had its own cost. I didnt get to bathe for three days, ate out of cans and had to boil any water I drank, plus you had the put up with about a million mosquitoes that make the Texas version look like house pets... Something was always trying to bite me, always... But for me, it was well worth it. Know why? Because now I know that just because some people dont have the water, or live in a culture where bathing your body daily isnt the norm, that dosnt make them dirty, just diferent than the culture I grew up in...and by the way, the couple my Dad and I were visiting with, lived in what most Americans would call a shack...and the inside of it was spotless, the small table, and the few cooking tools thay had were beyond clean. So, even though they didnt bathe every day, well, you get to the point that you really dont notice, because it becomes the norm... Anything they had, any object or tool, they would have gladly given to us, without reserve, and no sense of debt, because thats how they live. Those that need are given too, those that have do the giving, with no thought about owing each other, thats just the way it is... So I learned from all of this one lasting lesson... The only thing that limits your world is you, and your attitude. You can either look at life as a world full of walls, boxing you into a single, set path... or you can look at life as a place full of chances to learn something new, see something and meet someone different every chance you get. I bet if you had told LC, when he was a brand new law student that some day he would present a argument to the US Supreme Court, he would have told you, "Yes, I sure will", because he dosnt let the idea of "I can't" get in his way... So you want to be a railroader? What are you willing to do to become one? Move to a new place...sell your car? Give up your studies for a year or two? Trust me, life is way too short to wait around for things to happen. If you want something, well, you best get after it, right now, before the chance escapes you, or time and inertia end up gluing you in place. Know why LC has been all the things he has been? No one told him he couldn't be... Know why Mark Hemphill has been a dispatcher, and repaired locomotives, along with being the Editor of a major magazine and earned a few college degrees along the way? No one told him "no, you can't"...and if they did, he ignored them.... Your choice, your life. Ed [/quote] Ed- Thanks for your kind words. It has been quite a journey, but I am far from alone in being one of several bright and capable people who come here including yourself and Mark Hemphill. It gives me a bit of hope for the future of our industry. You are correct, my entry into the railroad industry was planned, not accidental. In my case it has been a combination of a very supportive family that not only supported my efforts but led by example. If I told you some stories of my forebears, you might not believe them as even to me they seem incredible at times. Always I was told that all things are possible and that one can choose his goals in life as long as he puts in the effort to earn that right. I've tried to honor that charge to the best of my ability. Hopefully, others like Andrew who had tough childhoods can learn from this ideal. Often those from difficult backgrounds can achieve much more than they imagine. LC
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