I feel I am fully entrenched now in the conservative mindset and I believe I am at peace with it. Coming to this conclusion has taken time, I have had many discussions with other people but especially Wife who keeps me calm instead of my more polarizing family members who can get as loud and aggressive as myself insisting we are right.
What I figured is that it doesn't matter, at the end of the day, I am living a pretty great life, Wife and I get up every day and work hard, whether going to work (for the man) or working on improving our little universe (our household), we are already on the winning side because we aren't lacking for much if anything. I could be healthier, I could be richer, I could be this and that, the only thing that has kept me either where I am (if you're negative of mindset) or gotten me where I have gotten to (if you're positive of mindset) is the fact that we get up every day and strive to make ourselves better. I am not out demanding life give me more or asking why some people have life better than I do. I was born into whatever situation, none of us can control that (and although I loved my upbringing, I have always thought my folks sacrificed a lot of themselves for us), I wanted more, so I chose to move to a big city (my decision) and I hustled starting from the bottom. It was not easy and I didn't help things by getting pregnant (Wife also had to make the hard decision of leaving her family and following me or she could have looked for a better man) before we were ready, but we stayed focused and although my first job was driving a forklift at a warehouse for $8 an hour in 1994-1995, I stayed hungry and made my moves. I tried relying on friends, got a job at LCRA as a chemist but that didn't get me far and eventually I found my future by being bold and applying with AMD who admittedly I knew nothing about the industry and what I was doing.
It took a few more years to achieve true success, my first year I was just a fab tech making $9.90 an hour, but that got me in, I didn't whine or complain, kept working hard and eventually got several promotions to get to my current position. It is not the highest position or salary I could be making, but it is all by my own making. Same can be said for Wife, although I will add that we did have to work as a team for her to do the schooling and leaving town required sacrifices from the both of us, but now she is in an even higher position than myself and making a little more money, which was always the plan.
So yeah, social justice warriors can keep fighting for "the man" to give them more or everyone can shut up and do what we did, put your head down and work your ass off, you'll get farther that way. Nobody gave my parents anything, my mom sacrificed to finish college and then get a Master's to move up, nobody gave my dad anything when he did the bold move of moving from the oil fields when it was in severe recession in the 80's and he made the scary (to him) decision to become a long distance trucker, but they did what had to be done for the betterment of their lives and to provide even more for their kids. Same with my in-laws, I don't think they planned on moving from their hometown where all their family had lived and they had their home. When they had to make the tough choice, my father in law moved to San Antonio for work and my mother in law eventually decided she would have to follow along for a better shot at a better life. Everyone in my family doing good has had similar stories, from my attorney brother who worked his butt off and got over $100,000 in debt for his degree (he has never even thought or said the government should pay his school loans) to my sister pursuing her Master's to become a principal and administrator, life doesn't give you anything, the beauty of this country is that opportunity is there, if you look and are bold enough to go for it.
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