21/40 - Never Stop Learning

I wasn't planning on going to college. It was not a guaranteed thing or an explicit expectation in our home. Both my parents went to college, but they said that we were each able to make that decision for ourselves based on what we wanted to get out of the experience and what we wanted to do after college.

My junior and senior year of high school, I was making what most people make their first year out of college through my lawn care and landscaping business. I had my younger brother working for me and was hiring friends for bigger jobs. I thought that I was going to just continue to build my company after high school. But then four things happened.

I was attending community college while still in high school for extra credit and to get ahead of things should I decide to go to college. Most of the classes were pretty straightforward and not memorable. But my English class with  Professor Miller really challenged me. She had the nickname Killer Miller and it made sense, she really made sure we knew what we were learning and could apply it. It was one of the first times that I remembered being really challenged to rise to a new standard of learning and it made me think, "maybe there is more for me to learn than just what I know from high school."

I was thinking about getting more involved at church after high school so I went and talked to the Associate Pastor about becoming an intern. He told me that they only offered internships to people enrolled in college. I asked him what he thought about me going to college and if I went, where should I go.

"Whatever you do, don't go to a Christian school."

It was not the advice I was expecting from my pastor. But he told me that given the way that I'd grown up, I needed to get outside the Christian bubble and see how my faith stood up around people who didn't all believe what I believed.

He had a painting on his wall that intrigued me, but I didn't understand it. So I asked him about it. He told me it was a reminder not to see things as they are but to see things for what they can become.  He is looking at the egg but sees the bird it will become.

My parents tracked down the painting and later gave it to me when I graduated from college.

The most successful business person I knew in high school was my dentist. He was also my Mom's cousin. He became my biggest client when he moved into his new massive house and had me take care of his putting green short lawn and do all of his landscaping and maintenance. One weekend we were taking my truck to get some huge paver stones for the side yard and he asked me about what I was going to do after high school. I told him that I was planning to just keep building my business and maybe take some classes at the community college on the side.

"If you have the chance to further your education and you don't pursue it, that is a wasted opportunity that lots of other less fortunate people would kill for."  

I hadn't thought of it in those terms, but it really stuck with me.

2:42am - November 18, 1999 - The Texas A&M University bonfire collapsed and killed 12 students. That tragedy was on all the nightly news channels and really affected some of my parents' friends that went to A&M. But the stories that emerged in the following days were stories of a global alumni community that showed up for each other and were about something bigger than their college.

That was the catalyst to pull together the previous three moments with Professor Miller, the Pastor, and the Dentist and apply to attend Texas A&M and become a part of the Aggie Network. That has turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made.