Unfettered Blather

If you were to ask me what my yearbook caption should read, I’d say either “Most likely to be misquoted” or “Most likely to be underestimated”. I have had more people tell me I would never do such-and-such for whatever presumptuous reason throughout my life. I have had so many people stand in the way of myself and success and then have the gall to tell me that I would never succeed. Well, no, not while you’re standing in the way. Should I just go through you? (Answer: Yes!)

The best revenge truly is living well. Even so, there are days when I want to get in touch with certain people to let them know how I am doing. I don’t want to go into detail, but things are going very well at work right now.While work may be going well, there is more to it than that. Before I joined my current employer, I was doing very well as a consultant. I progressed quickly, clients loved me, and I always met my hours for the year. Performance evaluations ran the gauntlet between good and excellent. Would you be surprised to find out that I once had someone tell me they thought I wasn’t cut out to be a programmer?

The most powerful enabling words anyone has ever told me is “You can’t”. As it turns out, I so often could. There have been goals I never reached, but only because I couldn’t do things all at once. Did you know I was planning on going to Airborne school while I was still in ROTC? I left ROTC for the wrong reasons, but even though I was still a student I was already making strides towards my military career. While I regret that I did not pursue that career, I did at least go on to achieve quite a bit regardless. Even in the face of more “You can’t”. True, there have been some interests that I would not have succeeded at. At one point when I was younger I was sure I wanted to be a fighter pilot, but my eyesight has rendered that dream null and void.

Still, there has been so much that I have not accomplished simply because I have not pursued it. Looking back, I was naive to think I would do certain things as quickly as I thought. Sorry for the vagaries, but I have my reasons for now. The point is, I still managed to accomplish much. I’d really like to go back to all those people who ever wished me nothing but failure and shove my success in their faces. Then again, I realize that one of the reasons I have been so successful is because I went on to do so much by ignoring their advice and moving past them. To continue being successful I have to continue to disregard everything about them. A shame, because the petty little troll inside of me wants to gloat so badly.

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