That harsh moment in life when it hits you that you didnt live up to your potential.

[YOUTUBE]I5CMh8SMjOw[/YOUTUBE]
shit hits me hard, man.

the older i get and see how life plays out, it blows my mind. Folks that you were so sure would be on the straight and arrow and just have life figured out, ends up faltering along. Some gets succesful while others are barely making it.


we often create these alternate reality in our mind where everything is okay..but when you get faced with the reality(like he did), it can be a jolt to your system.

 

EXCLUSIVE: Full story of why criminal wept as judge revealed they were classmates - he was a brilliant schoolboy who wanted to be a neurosurgeon but drugs and crime ruined his dream



Like many teenagers Arthur Booth had dreams of a successful career. Outstanding at math and science he would tell friends and family he wanted to be a neuro-surgeon.

Sitting across from him in a classroom at Nautilus Middle School in Miami Beach Mindy Glazer also had ambitions.

She had set her sights on college - first she wanted to be a veterinarian, but then she decided she wanted to go to law school and a have career as a top lawyer.

As millions of people have seen in a heart-wrenching courtroom video only one of those students fulfilled their dream.

The former classmates came face to face when Booth, 49, appeared before Glazer in her current role as a bond hearing judge.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ed-neurosurgeon-drugs-crime-ruined-dream.html

 

This going to be a good thread.

 

That reminds me of a couple of classmates in high school. I knew them and they were considered popular. One was an acrobatic fun-loving guy who was also a good dancers and the other was popular with the girls. They both ended up in jail . The acrobat was in jail for what he said was a "victimless crime" and a spiteful judge sentenced him to prison. I was working as a Correction s Officer when he came in. I saw his name on the list and I couldn't believe it at first. And then we met face to face. We were both surprised to see each other years later. But it was also very awkward since we were on opposite sides. It was also dangerous because inmates could use that history to hurt us both. The other guy I knew murdered a man on the job...in front of a group of children eating lunch in a school cafeteria. He had been fired from his janitorial job at the school and he blamed the co-worker for it. He shot the co-worker to death with a shotgun. His case was on the local news and it hit the town like a shockwaves. I have met other guys who had potential and ruined it because of a momentary lapse of reason.

 

I had my realization that I hadn't lived up to my potential when I went back to grad school late in life and saw how many of my classmates were loaded, young, fiscally solvent and without any of life's challenges or problems. It really caused me to reevaluate my life.

 

I had gone through that. But it was through no fault of my own. Family and we'll-meaning folks around me unconsciously led me off my path. I wanted to be an actor in film and television. But I was too often told that such a dream was not realistic. I was even told that writing was not realistic. I wanted to be that starving artist committer to the art form and I would be respected and appreciated for it through my performance. If I couldn't be an artistic person, making a living and being happy, I'd rather be dead. I had written a book and am on the next phase in the publishing process. I just need the money to produce, protect, publish and promote my book. I don't know how it will be received. Only God knows that. But I have to get published after all the years it took to write it. Like all worthwhile things in life, it is not just a hobby or a thing to pass the time. It is a journey.

 

Everyone has their own journey to take. If people start to compare me to anything or anyone, I remind myself that my path is no other's.

 

Wow, good luck!! Just from reading a couple of your posts I can tell you a wildly intelligent man full of talent. Looking forward to reading your art!

 

Thanks, Gorath and AlabasterGoddess. I always measure myself against achievers to try to set a high bar for myself, but that can sometimes be debilitating.

 

So true. Comparing bank accounts and skins on the wall is a fool's errand.
Everyone has their own journey, the name of the game isn't how fat is your piggy bank.

Evaluate what you do not just by the check you earn but what kind of contribution you're making to society.

I went to school with a few kids who thought they wanted to work on Wall Street and suddenly retired at 32 to either teach, open a small business or work in a niche field for a fraction of what they earned working for an investment bank.

 

Same here. You are alone on that. It shouldnt happen but it does.

 

I like that.

 

In a society where we are fed that a journey is not just of one's own path, but a complex web of obstacles and trials, we still find those areas where the void cannot touch, but only to be filled with the blood and sweat of your own perseverance.

As long as we are alive, we can only nurture the wounds of despair and walk toward a better tomorrow. We need not emulate others, but to observe and collect the information necessary to attain your own personal comfort and contentment.

A few derailments here and there should not really deter you from reaching that end. But, we all fall, but we rise once more.

 

The best proverb i heard about life is

Dont get your own pants caught in your pitchfork

 

Don't worry about the other person. They will throw you off your path. Focus on you. There is still time to achieve your dreams.

 

Funny you say that been contemplating the same path as of late. Money is great and all but at this point I just want good food, lots of sleep, and some place clean to call my own lol

 

That's a very zen life goal IMO.

Inner peace is VERY underrated, and money alone can't get you there.

 

I realize my lost potential every single day. If I could go back and talk to my 18 year old self I'd tell him to do things so much more differently.

 

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