The hardest one was on Saturday because I know I won't see my son until this summer. He won't be able to go with the rest of the family to Hawaii in March for a visit. Sunday was easier because my daughter was only flying to Oregon which is only a two day drive or a 1 1/2 hour flight away for me to visit her. Also, she is going to take a summer University course of study nearby and stay with us for several months during the summer. So, that will be nice too.
Luckily, on Sunday I only had to drive to San Jose which is a much shorter drive that SF Airport for me. When I said goodbye to my son I had to walk away because the tears started forming in my eyes because of how little time we have together now these days. A week once a year is all there is and he is usually so focused on preparing for the next year that he isn't really present much psychologically. However, it likely was the same way for my father when he was retired and I was trying to support 3 kids and a wife back from 1980 to 1985 when I was in my early 30s before he passed away.
It's good to see my kids again and to know that they will be okay and are okay in their lives. Nothing is perfect we all know but as things go my oldest son and oldest daughter are doing okay. Though my youngest is sending out college applications to about 10 colleges in California, Oregon and Washington and is very stressed there is nothing majorly wrong in her life except the general angst of being 17. She has her own car ( a new one), she has the money we have set aside for her college(so she won't have to pay off student loans), so she has a bright future ahead of her. She is anxious to get away from us to find her way in the world. So, I expect about a year away and she will want to be back here again just like I was at 17 when I went away to a private school for my senior year in High School
The year was fall 1965 to May 1966 when I went away to Santa Fe, New Mexico to a private school then. Since I lived in Glendale then and had already gone two years at Glendale High School it was a very big change for me. I remember riding the El Capitan train to near Santa Fe and the Lady in charge of the Dorms there greeting me and telling me she thought I was a spoiled, tall and handsome California Coast kid and out of place in Santa Fe. She thought I was too well dressed etc. At first I was going to get really upset because nobody ever talked to me that way before. But then, I realized I was in her sort of boot camp to see if I would obey the rules in this school. After all, I was 17 years old had dated a girl 21 and was dating a girl 18 who was going to L.A. State University in Los Angeles and really was an adult for all intents and purposes already. I had already bought my own car with money I had made working after school and summers since I was 12 working for my Dad in his Electrical Contracting Business and I had worked as a newspaper boy starting when I was 10.
So, I was an adult pretending to be a high school student at that point in my life. But, then I realized if I didn't play this game of boot camp respect with her I would be sent home in disgrace. So, I realized the game being played and if I wanted to stay with my friends in Santa Fe that I knew from Church I had to play this game. That's kind of how life actually is. If you don't learn to play the games in the situations you are in while all the time realizing they are games because you are intelligent to actually be capable of doing anything you want to you don't go very far in life. Playing the game while not emotionally buying into it is how you become and entrepreneur like I eventually did by my late 20s.
So, the more hats you can wear efficiently and effectively the more money you likely are going to make in your life if that is important to you.
Money of course is always a very two edged sword. (In other words you don't know if it will give you the power that you want in your life or if the money will cut you and maim you and kill you. You never really know for sure. So, being centered and wise in all your decisions is necessary for you to be able to handle it. If you can't handle a little bit of money you REALLY won't be able to handle a whole lot of money either. So, figure out what you can deal with an still stay alive and happy.
So, learn to be wise and efficient with the money you now have in your life. If that is working for you then slowly branch out to become more financially effective.
For example, when I was young I often had to take jobs for money working for people I hated and doing what I hated doing a lot until I was about 28. This made me mostly unhappy because the more money I made the less happy I was. So, I would spend the money on stupid wasteful things to be able to survive working at jobs I hated. This was a negative vicious cycle that I had to stop. So, my solution at the time was to ONLY take jobs I enjoyed enough not to waste money. If I was happy in a job then I didn't screw up the way I spent my money. Also, if I was happy in whatever job I had it wasn't like work it was actually fun. So, if I was having fun making money that usually meant I was running and designing my own businesses. So, the more fun I had creating and running a business the more fun I had designing a business, the more money I made and invested in good ways for myself and my family. So, designing your life for effectiveness is really important.
If you are like me and have to work in jobs you hate there usually is no future to this at all unless you are having to raise a family and have no other choice. But, if you are single, you are usually pretty low maintenance financially. You have a whole lot more freedom to design a life you can actually stand to live if you think this whole thing through better each day.
The more happy and efficient and effective you are and if you are living in a place out of doors which doesn't have smog and out in healthy climates doing what you love, even if you aren't making a fortune, quality if life trumps everything I've found. So, it isn't really how much money you make at all. If you live in your vacation spot and are doing what you love to do it really doesn't matter how much money you are making at that point. Because you are living in a heaven realm hopefully around friends and doing what you love to do.
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