I attended a Christmas dinner event at my parent’s church today where I sat and ate with college students who were home for the holidays. Some of them kinda knew me as so-and-so’s brother or could probably tell I was older than them. Many of these college students attend ‘elite’ schools and sound rather ambitious. It was interesting hearing their experiences at school, the conversations mostly revolving around academics, and their post-graduation plans. They seemed like they were in a rush to fulfill some unattainable goal (i don’t mean this in a bad way, but it reminded me of how I was when I was their age) and perhaps are thinking too much about the future than they really need to. Some were aspiring engineers or doctors. One even admitted that her goal was to ‘marry rich’. And while I wanted to impart some older brotherly advice to them, I realized that it would’ve been pointless b/c by telling them, it would only hinder their self-discovery process.

In June, I got on a small cruise ship and played poker with a table full of senior citizens. This old guy at the table, sum up the cruel game of self-discovery: “You spend all your youth and adult years screwing up….and at the moment you think you’ve figured it out, it’s time to check-out.”