Of Introductions

When I was young and in grade school, I had no idea what I wanted to do when I grew up. For some odd reason at the age of eight I thought choosing my occupation then would be better than not knowing later, but what child actually knows what they want to do when they are that young? Not I.

The occupations would change from day to day each inspired by a movie or television show that I watched. At the playground I would announce my new job decision and on those days would act as if I was already hired to perform whatever job I had chosen. I remember specifically there was one guy picking on one of the girls. That day I had decided I was a cop.

"Stop! You're under arrest," I said knocking the kid down to the ground.
"What are you doing?"
"Are you going to stop picking on that girl?"
"Get off of me!"

We were both taken to the principal and paddled.

I had no idea what I was doing. Police weren't supposed to be paddled.

Even after four years in college, I was on the fence to what I wanted to do with my life. Isn't that what happens to most Americans in search of this fabled unicorn dream that grandpa Jefferson spoke about four score ago? We dream and dream and dream until our dreams are more dream than actual reality. We forget that to forge dreams, to entwine them into this hard and infertile reality, we have to toil hard in the soil under the beating sun. That was always my problem. I wanted things to come easy. To happen to me. We want things in America to just....happen. Ask the person who created the sweepstakes.

The job that I wanted could be compared to the girl next door. I never noticed it. I made it a friend, but not a serious companion. I had fun with it, but never dared to consider it for anything more. That is until my eyes were opened, much like when the hero in the story finally realizes that he indeed does love the girl next door, and I decided that I had to start writing as much as humanly possible. I had to keep writing until the last drop of blood dripped from my veins. When that day comes, at least I can die knowing I chased the unicorn.