Latest issue of Time Magazine featured an interesting story with connections to pieces by a few other authors.
"Life After High School" was written by Annie Murphy Paul and looks at the idea of how important high school is (or is not) in shaping who someone turns out to be. The piece is only sort of linked to here in that Time has decided not to post it online, but I was struck by Paul's high school graduation speech notions (which she had just been asked to deliver at the commencement for her old high school). In short - be all you can be, don't be limited, dream big.
All the stuff of Successories posters to be sure, but... perhaps nuggets (or even big piles) of truth there for those of us trying to figure out what to be upon growing up. To this end, Paul's writing led me thinking on a few different concepts written on by various authors linked to on this blog...
From the linked to here on a recurring basis writer, John Gardner...
"If we are conscious of the danger of going to seed, we can resort to countervailing measures. At almost any age. You don't need to run down like an unwound clock. And if your clock is unwound, you can wind it up again. You can stay alive in every sense of the word until you fail physically. I know some pretty successful people who feel that that just isn't possible for them, that life has trapped them. But they don't really know that. Life takes unexpected turns."
-----
From the posted on here Robert Lipsyte book An Accidental Sportswriter...
"Don't quit. Gut it out. Try to hold on till the final buzzer. It will work out, somehow."
-----
From the Joe Posnanski blog post "My Kansas City Goodbye"...
"And who am I now? I still love Springsteen and chocolate and reading in bed. I still have a soft spot in my heart for Winona Ryder, even after the whole shoplifting thing. But those are not who I am, not like it was then. I'm a father. A husband. A writer. Most of the things that mattered then don't matter at all to me now. Most of the things that matter to me know would have been unimaginable to me then. I am not floating. I am anchored.
-----
My take away gist from the Paul piece along with the words from Gardner, Posnanski and Lipsyte... should move foward towards a goal while still appreciating the present. Good things both.
