Lessons Learned living 75 years
Part 1
My first post was about Lessons Learned from 2024. I thought, “Hmm, I’ve been around for a lot longer than that. What other lessons have I learned?”
Life is short. There are so many quotes that use this as the premise. Just do it. Seize the day. No time like the present. It’s encouragement to take risks. I agree with it in principle. I have had my moments when taking bold action turned out to be the right thing to do. In the fall of 1969, I was starting my sophomore year in college. The girl I loved in high school, the one I couldn’t get over, had graduated in May, and started classes at the same college. It was a small school, so we couldn’t help but see each other. We even met occasionally to play ping pong. And I was dying inside every time I saw her. I knew I had to do something, or I would end up back in a psych ward. So…I asked my roommate to drop me out of college. I packed up everything I owned (it wasn’t much), got in my Ford Falcon, and drove all the way from Houston to Los Angeles. I showed up at my uncle’s house and asked for sanctuary. He never hesitated. It probably saved my life. He and his wife both passed away this year. I’m so glad I got to see them and thank them again for their help.
After a year with my uncle and aunt, I felt like I was going nowhere. I’d worked at 7-11 for a year while going to college. But I needed to figure out what I was going to do with my life. It was 1971. The military was having a tough time recruiting, so when I walked into the Air Force Recruiting office, they were happy to see me. I hadn’t expected that, since I had a seizure disorder. They asked if I was on medication. I was. Had I had any seizures while I was on the medication? I hadn’t. Not long after that, I was on a plane to San Antonio, Texas, for basic training. I’d signed up for electronics training, so as soon as I finished basic training, I was off to Denver, Colorado for technical training. I became an avionics technician for the F-111 aircraft. Back then, it was cutting edge, so I guess that was cool. I passed the course and was sent to Clovis, New Mexico.
There was nothing to do in Clovis. At first, I started drinking heavily, along with most of my air force buddies. That was never going to be good for me, so I opted to sign up for classes at the university in Portales, 20 miles away. For the next three years, I worked the night shift in the air force, then went to college during the day. For the first time since I’d left Houston, I felt alive again. I made friends, I studied hard, took theater classes, had fun, and in 1975 I got my bachelor’s degree in English with a second major in speech communication. Later that same year, I got out of the air force. At last, my life seemed to be on track.