Reflecting back, a cheep car and a random website.

Great story Cope, congratulations on your perseverance and hard work. Thanks for sharing something so personal.

My Dad was a WW2 vet. He taught me almost everything about life that has turned out to be important... although when he was trying to teach me things, mostly I wasn't listening. I got tangled up with the wrong woman very early in life, and my blind love/lust for her made me make a few really bad decisions that had lasting implications. Dad watched it all happen, pretty much as he warned me it would, but he never said I told you so. When it all fell apart and I had thrown away a scholarship and other opportunities, he didn't lecture me and tell me how I should have listened. Instead, he wrote me a note and told me to read it later and think about it. Then he smiled, clapped me on the back and said, "This too shall pass." That was in 1977. Dad passed away in 1990.
I still have the note. This is what he wrote.
"Think about life like a train ride. We are merely passengers on the train of life. We didn't buy the ticket, so we don't really know where the train is going, or when our ride will end. All we can do is enjoy the ride, and if there are bumps along the way, we hope the shock absorbers work. When they don't, just try to land on your feet, that will make the bumps easier to manage.
Always remember that no matter how rough today might have been, you should go to bed each night knowing that you gave your best that day, and tomorrow is a new beginning, with a complete set of new rules and rewards.
And if you live every single day the very best way you know how, and if in all your endeavors you gave all you had to give in every way you knew how, then no man nor any God can pass judgement on you, or condemn you if it wasn't enough. For by doing the very best you can regardless of what befalls you, you will have paid the "dues of life" in full."