Cory Burell

My life in the past few years has been anything less than conventional bringing up this post. I have always been the person to make the mistakes, mess something up, but in the end I usually end up smelling like roses out of it.

With my kids getting older I’ve put alot of stress on my own shoulders to finish up school. Yes it would great to do so but with my career it would do about zip for me money or position wise and in all honesty it takes away alot of time from my kids. Just for those of you who don’t know I didn’t get kicked out of school nor was it a failure to do well. My future ex wife was pregnant at the time so money/time was an issue. I never really had a conventional college time anyways minus my freshman year. For most of the time I worked days as an industrial electrician and went to school at night. It worked out great to be honest. Found a love for a job, a great paying career that I’m good at, and am years ahead of most the people I knew from college. The bad part was in my honest opinion I took the bumpier less traveled path. The hours sucked, the work was hard, and at the beginning I made poop for money.

Anyways so back to the point. The thought has always been what do I tell my kids. My parents didn’t goto college, their parents didn’t, and now my kids have been blessed with 2 parents who didn’t finish.  Growing up I never saw much value in studying away the hours of my life. Now years down the road I’ve learned how important that hard work is and try to stick with it every day. But what about them…….what can I preach to them? It haunted me for a long time and not having a father after age 12 I’m not exactly the expert on fatherly figures….or so I thought.

I finally figured it out though and it wasn’t what I expected. Some people in life make all the right decisions and have someone guide them. Great for those parents and great for those kids but alot of times it seems like these people don’t appreciate what they have. I by no means ever want my child to fail but there is a great amount of pride in figuring things out in life yourself. Parents should be less concerned with guiding their children step by step in life but instead giving them the capabilities to deal with life decisions on their own. The pride in saying “I did it” can come from a milestone of any size or flavor. Life isn’t about a piece of paper or the size of your paycheck………………it should be about learning and living.

In all of this pondering I remembered my dad saying “4 Lefts will get you there…you just have to have enough gas”. It never really made sense to me and to be honest my dad said alot things that could be construed as redneck ramblings. Maybe I’m lost in my own demented logic but why in the world would I want to take the common road through life when taking 4 lefts will get you the scenic route? Maybe after all these years of thinking I didn’t get as much out of my dad I’ve finally figured out he was trying to teach me all along.

Anyways I apologize to anyone who read this b/c its pretty much 650 words of complete ramblings but it was just something I’ve been pondering lately.