I dedicate this story to my adorable son of all natural childbirth. He got rhythm, he got soul, he just needs a new playlist about self-control.
And also to the nurse that whacked the shit out of his back in order to cough up whatever he had been choking on, while tangled up in the umbilical cord. He was awake the first time I saw him.
I remember explaining to my children why I thought it was important for them to “do well in school.”
It was around the year 2011, and we were on our way home to our still “new-to-us” single-family home in Herndon, Virginia. My daughter was in kindergarten and my son two years behind.
My understanding at the time was this:
You want to do well in school, so that you can be eligible to learn even higher paying skills in college. Because jobs you can qualify for with only a high school education at a young age “don’t pay very well.”
To explain it too elementary for pre-elementary children…
I told them that it was better to work only 2 hours for $50/hour ($100) than it is to work 8 hours for $7.25/hour ($58). But it was important that they try their best to really think of the kind of work they can imagine themselves enjoying.
It was then, that I told them, we would hope to use the money we saved for their education to be put toward their, essentially, future happiness.
Of course 15 years later, having watched my children struggle through the social fire testing of their souls in high school in regards to developing their own character, understanding the heirarchies in cultural American society, the confidence required for each social standing, and trying to emerge from that muck with a clear and positive mentality of who it is you are based on a letter grade displaying how interested you were in memorizing the curriculum…?
I don’t know. I took one look at my daughters algebra and asked her why they are making everything so complicated. Why do you have to solve the problem 4 different ways to get to the same answer?
“They make us,” she said.
The year was 2021, and at this point in my understanding of the current state of society, I was like “FUCK ’do well in school.’” Just try to not commit suicide while you “do the time.”
In 2023, apartments cost $2,000/month and my faith the size of a mustard seed told me my children’s successful high school graduation were able to have lived for the day of and learned how to make friends.
It was then that I commended my daughter for wanting to pursue refurbished shuttle buses and school buses for her desired home/way of life.
Independence at 18 years of age should mean freedom and pursuit of happiness. And I would no longer condone the notion of “doing time” paying $2,000 rent every month for a box to sleep in.
“…Look what they make you give.” (a quote from assassin in one of The Bourne Trilogies)
They make us. Yeah, “they” also made me allow the 24+ vaccination injections to your baby legs before you can remember in order to follow the societal norms of it being illegal for your kid to not be in school when it is in session, foreseeing “truancy officers” scoop up your kids for “being thugs.”
And I suspect that at least 1 or a combination of others of those 24+ gave my son fallen ankles. Because as a toddler it made his legs hurt to walk. For some reason, my daughter could walk for 4 hours, no problemo.
Did you know that a 14-year old can work full-time as a welder in Turkey?
But I ALSO didn’t know that I accidentally bought my kids what I thought was George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm that I read in the 1990s, but is was a newer version of the story by a different publisher… from Istanbul.
So I haven’t got to read this new version to know if I like the story I bought you or not.
But if you need someone to tell you a story to fall asleep to in whatever language you speak, I would recommend you download the jw.org APP because “The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures” takes fucking forever to tell. So if you ain’t asleep in 3 days, you were NEVER tired.
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