THINK ABOUT IT

The Thinker, Internet Domain

Sometimes I sits and thinks.

And sometimes I just sits.

Sometimes we human beings need to exercise our frontal lobes just a bit more to ponder our future. As Faber College's Dean Wormer so succinctly put it to Flounder Dorfman in one of those many memorable scenes from Animal House, "Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life son"! And as Bluto Blutarsky lamented as the Delta's were all expelled from school for pathetically low grades, "Seven years of college down the drain"!

The year was 1962 and the Vietnam War was in high gear. The fraternity boys were informed that their draft boards had been notified and were told that they were now eligible for service. It's another life lesson that if you don't take charge of your life, someone else quite probably will at some point.

I can relate. The year was 1963. I had just completed two years of prerequisite courses for a Mechanical Engineering degree. Then I transferred to the state University for my first year of specific mechanical engineering courses and experienced my first year away from home. My father had recently died of cancer. The night life in Aggieville and the day life at the local marina ran non stop and so did our little band of merry men. And I was beginning to learn that I really did not like mechanical engineering. Add it up and I was on a collision course with Dean Wormer or whatever his name was by the time I blew most of my courses for the year. My subsequent choices were the draft and a paid vacation in Vietnam or salvaging another degree back at home by deciding to grow up. I made the deans honor roll the following year and never looked back. I was drafted shortly after I graduated but by that time the war was ending and I was deferred. The lesson learned? There's two ways to learn in life; Build on your successes, think about your failures and do something about them for the future. Substitute the words "Next time" whenever you catch yourself thinking or saying "If only".