From The Heart: Education

Wrote this while on the cruise....but haven't done one of these from the hearts in a while....

So Day 5 of the cruise....when I was sitting by myself watching ball, one dude I met came to me. His name was Alfonso and he asked me how old I looked, he's like def in your 20's right, I'm like nah man 19, you. He said he was 24 (kinda looked like it). So yeah, he was from New Orleans but came on the cruise with his fam, I met his cousin from Houston. Anyways, I've seen him on the ball court plenty of times, but never sat down and talked with him before. He's like you still in school, I'm like yeah going into my second year, you...you're done right? He said nah...apparently he dropped out, didn't ask details cuz that's rude. But yeah....I was saying I was in Kinesiology, etc. And I asked him what's up....he's like yeah man, I f'ed it all up, I had a kid when I was younger and now me and my ex aren't together. She lives in Houston with the kid and he lives in New Orleans. But he says he goes to Houston frequently to visit her, his kid and his fam so that's convenient. But yeah then I told him my brother dropped outta college as well, but I said my parents were like money's not an issue, if you want you can go back...but he decided to work and he still is. And Alfonso was like oh man...I would love to go to school, but I can't (didn't ask why cuz it seemed rude) and he's like yeah I'm looking for work or tryna take classes to increase my skills. I was like yeah man...it's not always about your academics or scholarly things. Some companies will prefer a person who can simply talk to customers or has good communication skills over someone who has everything on paper, but can't talk to people. Or small skills like speaking multiple languages is something companies look for. You just have to pick something you're interested in and build skills towards that. And we started talking about school and ish and he was saying it's hard sometimes cuz you don't always get a job after university...but then I said that's why you gotta either choose something you like, so you'll end up with a job you like so at least if it's not that great pay, you'll still love doing it, or pick a diverse field with a lot of things you can go into, that way in one option doesn't work for you, you still have multiple others. He told me this talk really inspired him....and that he'll really take heed to what I said...but at the same time, it made me really value my education....cuz he was saying school is really important, it's sad to see he wants to, really wants to go to school....but can't.....and my bother sits at home on his computer all day or at work all day with the chance to go back to school and be somebody but chooses not to. It really makes me value school, the dollar and hardwork in general.