Graduation Note to Shane

Young Shane,

It has been a long path to get to this point.  There have been many minor milestones along the way, but graduating from high school is a major milestone in everyones life.  This whole crazy school thing has been a right of passage to get to this point.  An artificial environment in which you have to navigate and not long after it is over, you will realize that very little of the experience or the education has prepared you for the real world.  What have I been doing for the past 12 years???

As I have done so often in the past – I will share some quotations from Shakespeare – the first one is that “Advice is wasted on the young.”   You are 18, when someone twice or thrice your age gives advice, at least give it some consideration.  You have to consider the source – particularly when listening to me! But someone older has life experience that you should at least think about before discarding.

“Neither a lender nor a borrower be.”  Lending  - particularly to friends seldom ends well.  So if someone asks for a short loan let them know that you are tight too.  And borrowing is fraught with danger.  It is easy to get that 1^st credit card and easy to charge this and charge that and suddenly you have ginormous payments to make every month.   Get a gas card and pay it off every month. That will build your credit. Then after you have a good credit history get an American Express card. It charges an annual fee – but more importantly – you have to pay the full balance at the end of every month.  So you won’t accumulate a balance like you would with a Visa or Mastercard

“All things in moderation.”  Alcohol, food, love and so forth – all in moderation.  Always be in control and don’t let your passions control you.   I have a friend of mine who is a great guy to hang around with, but when he drinks, he puts the pedal to the metal and just gets crazy drunk.  Don’t be that guy.  And when you think that something is getting the better of you, stop for a month and see if you can do with out it.

Last word that I had was that you were planning a career in law enforcement.  I think that is a honorable career – a difficult career, but honorable.  First get rid of your tells – when you are nervous or uncertain you shuffle your feet and clench/unclench your hands.  So get rid of these traits.  Always be calm and steady even when you are in the eye of storm.  Even when you are scared to death – inside you may be hollow and scared to death, but outward you must project strength and certainty.

I dealt with the public as a telephone man and later in cable tv.  It won’t take long and you will enter a house and in about a minute or less, you will be able to get a feel for the other guy.  You will be able to read personalities and get a vibe about them.  Trust your gut, if something doesn’t feel right – there is something up.  

Oh and always do the honorable thing. I have a friend who was a deputy.  Don’t let a crook talk you into doing something on the other side of the law.  Because now they have a hammer over you – they can blow you in for aiding and abetting or whatever.  He stayed on the straight and narrow, but knew of another cop who got caught up in some bad crap helping some crooks and got busted.  Do you want to be a cop in prison with the same people you put in there??? 

But you are young, the world is in front of you.  Remember the only person that limits you – is you.  Don’t be afraid to change careers, change states, travel - go do what you want to do.  Before long the world will grind you down, have fun now while you can still bounce back!

Anyway enclosed is $50, have some fun – but not too much fun.