Reflections of Poverty

I was thinking about some things the other day, mostly about how a lot of uncontrollable events in my life have forced me and my family to remain in a state of poverty.

My last rant about some people with the notion that it is just as easy for me to “Get off my Ass” and do something about it really stirred me up.

Yes, it is true I made the choice to be a carpenter. When I was growing up, like most of us; I never thought about what I really wanted to do when I became older. As a result, when I left high-school in my senior year I more or less just kind of fell into the trade.

Maybe I should start there, with one of the first major events in my life that I really had no control over. I had started smoking at around 13 or 14 I think, and all through my junior and high-school years I had never been caught smoking on school grounds. Well, my luck ran out, and I finally got caught.

It was the first semester of my senior year and as luck would have it, the school system had changed the “maximum” number of allowable absences from 9 (one day a week), to 7. This really sucked for all of us who were able to take a sick day once a week and still keep our grades up. I had missed 6 days for the semester, and only had a two more weeks left for my sick days to replenish.

The Dean caught me having a smoke break behind the Gym, that’s where we all went after lunch to have a smoke. He said finish that up and come to my office. So I went to his office and he said he was going to suspend me for two days. Well, that was going to give me an F in six fucking classes that I had pretty good grades in (Including trig – not bad for a long-hair at my school – full of surfin beach rats and stoners)

I explained to the Dean that this event was going to cost me several failing grades and that If he could wait till the next semester – only a couple short weeks away I would gladly accept the punishment (woohoo – two days out of school).

Well, even though I had never had any problems with this particular Dean, he was an absolute asshole and told me “Well, Buddy – I guess your pretty screwed – I hope that smoke was worth it”.

That pissed me off so bad I went off on this guy and told him what a shit fucking prick he was for not waiting till the next semester to screw me out of sick days. I went and removed all my books from my locker and returned them to his office – I threw my books on his desk and shoved them in his lap – with all the papers on his desk – and told him he sucked as a person and he could take his fucking school and shove it up his ass.

That was the demise of my Senior Year and my diploma. I am not so sure that I would have really been anything other than a carpenter if I would have graduated (I know have a GED and a Degree anyway) But my point is, this was just one of many hardships in my life, that if someone else would have any compassion or understanding for another fucking human being on this planet – that my life might have been just a little better.

Now that we have the beginning out of the way, I can tell you how the rest of a carpenters life goes.