Things I have learned - We survived wacky

Today’s Wisdom: A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him. –David Brinkley

By Bill D. Ward

I recently got to spend some time catching up with a bunch of college friends and roommates. Some I hadn’t seen in 53 years. A lot had happened in everyone’s lives since the early ‘70s.

There was no shortage of stories of the old days. Some were familiar because I was there. Others were new to me. Thankfully I had been elsewhere the night they were riding in a stolen car. Of course, they claim they didn’t know it was stolen.

As the afternoon went on, a strange thought began to clarify. How is it that the group of guys sitting around me had enjoyed such accomplished careers, when the stories indicated such an opposite potential?

I think we would have made good material back then for a television series titled Booze, Babes and Bad Decisions. The fact that I was now sitting with very accomplished and successful men in their 70s indicated there was either divine intervention or somehow age and good wives straightened our paths. There may be a lot to be said for good wives.

One of the things I have learned is that we all have the potential to make good lives or bad lives. Bad decisions is probably one of the main culprits in defining alternative trajectories. As our stories rolled, I remembered many bad decisions I had made in those early years. My life could have been radically different. Perhaps this is where I should clarify, I never inhaled. I suspect that is the same situation for everyone.

We were never bad people back then. In fact, others would have defined us as fine gentlemen and good students worthy of dating their daughters. And yet, somehow, we were capable of generating those wacky stories.

I think we all kind of miss the adventures we had back then. I know I was having more fun then than I am today. But life isn’t just about fun. I find I am much more proud and pleased about the years between college and today. I’m just sayin’.