Attention All Students

School is about to start, just as school starts every year. I remember the excitement of the beginning of
the school year and then the reality of what I was in for, especially since I didn't care much for school. The beginning of school meant that I could, for the next nine months,  reconnect and stay connected to my many friends and perhaps make a few new friends. School also meant that high school football was imminent and that was reason enough, in my mind, to endure the exhaustive classroom drudgery. The things I liked the best about school were important to me but not academically relevant. The newness of the school year quickly wore off and the daily academic quest became more and more of a drag on my lifestyle. Homework was always getting in the way of more important activities such as sandlot football, shooting pool or just hanging out.

Whilst I was underachieving at my schoolwork, many of my teachers saw something in me that I did not, until later in life, see in myself. My Mother saw what the teachers saw. What they saw and what they insisted upon sharing with me was that, my self impression, that I was not capable, was entirely wrong. I was consciously not measuring up to my raw potential. I wasn't lazy. I was not focused. They saw a kid with unbridled energy headed it too many directions and found it very challenging to get my attention long enough to help me focus. I was the thoroughbred horse that just wanted to run and run, never making the turn on the track, I ran straight through the white fence, off the track and into the future.

What would have been if I had paid attention and applied myself during my school years. Here after all this time I still ask that question. Of course, I cannot allow the choices I made way back then to encumber me from achieving my goals and to a large extent they have not. But what if?

Stay in school, arrive on time, meet deadlines, apply yourself, be thorough, get the help you need, behave, show respect to your teachers and they in authority. Your school years are some of the most tremendous and turbulent times of your life. They matter, you matter and your teachers matter. Act like it, because you will never regret behaving appropriately and making a great effort.

Horizontal Roots

We have a few nice size flower beds around our home. The gentleman who completely restored this 1920's home had the foresight to not only put in these nice flower beds but he also put down a weed-barrier. This black sheet of material is rolled out onto the surface and then covered with top-soil. The plants you choose to grow are planted within a circle you cut in the barrier, allowing their roots to grow deeply. However, when weeds grow, their roots are restricted from growing down by this barrier. This makes the puling of the weeds extremely easy. The weeds roots cannot "Take-Root" and no matter the number or variety of weeds, the pulling is a piece-of-cake.

Roots matter. The foundation you possess is a fine example of your roots. The root foundation is comprised of the people who influenced you, the books you have read and the things you have learned by experience. Adequate root structures require a fertile environment and that means you have to be willing to learn and grow at every opportunity, especially when you make mistakes. The taller you grow in your endeavor the deeper your roots need to grow. When the growth is too rapid and disproportionately vertically focused the roots do not have adequate time to grow deeply, the top-heavy result is unstable. You look really good growing so high so fast but when a challenge comes you do not have a sufficient root structure to be able to overcome the negative forces.

Growth is desirable but the right kind of growth at the right pace is the kind that will develop a deep root system that will sustain your personal and professional experiences for a lifetime. Grow deeply as well as tall.