St. Louis - 6/27

I normally don’t write on Friday's, but I’ll make an exception.  We went out to the Shanti to celebrate Danielle’s birthday and I met a middle-aged gentleman at the bar.  He noticed I was 27 and looked at me like he didn’t believe it.  A compliment I never get tired of.  After exchanging a couple of pleasantries he asked me “So, what do you want to do?”  I explained that I want to help people, that I would love to continue pursuing a career in disaster relief but I am still entertaining the thought of being a nurse.  The man gave me a stern look and said, “No. I asked you what do you want to do.  Stop dancing around the question.”  I was a little taken aback.  I then shortened my answer to simply being a nurse on route to being a doctor—judging from his attire I figured the add-on would satisfy him.  He then proceeded to give me a lecture; the bar was too loud to pick out all of it, but the summary is as follows.  If you don’t have a solid foundation and plan in place by the time you’re 30 you’re screwed, in this world it is all about who you know so spend more money to get into institutions with recognizable names, and be respectful.  The gentleman said every time you ask for something say please, and after you receive it thank the person for the item or service.  In addition, he said to do something nice for someone every day.  When I pointed out that I was a Boy Scout and that I still follow the slogan to the best of my ability, he smiled but his eyes betrayed that he didn’t care.

I do not know the man’s name, but he is a business manager for several restaurants in Michigan and Wisconsin (and, I suspect, the Shanti here in Missouri).  I feel like he is pretty work-oriented, but this has allowed him to be successful, travel all over the world, and lead a comfortable life.  I’d love to travel as he has… but I need to find the ambition.  The man provided me with some tough love as far as advice goes; 30 is just a blink away and I have yet to muster the courage to just charge down a particular path for my future.  Maybe it’s time to do that… but on this particular night, the talk really brought me down.

I went out to join my friends on the patio and was blown away by the atmosphere.  The building was worn and had a western saloon look to it, there were colorful lights hanging everywhere, an assortment of people...  This scene was something you’d find in the Firefly universe—and as I made that realization, I discovered that is exactly what AmeriCorps St. Louis is.  The program is Serenity and we her crew: the Fellows find the crew, find us jobs, and we keep flying.

As I looked around I was nearly brought to tears by the camaraderie.  Due to the nature of our work we rarely are able to gather in groups as large as this.  Everyone had a trying week but there were smiles all around and just being together to celebrate this special occasion brought us all renewed energy.  A friend, Dathan, bought me a drink and as we were exchanging stories both good and bad (my raccoon encounter was a hit) the man who I talked to earlier that night made an appearance.  While he may have been in a foul mood at the bar he showed no signs of it now—he cleaned our table for us and had the barkeep pour Danielle a birthday shot.  Whether or not he was providing me an example for what we had talked about earlier I couldn’t say, but I was very happy that he helped make Danielle’s night. 

Oh life, why do you have to be so short?  Why do things have to get harder as you get older and professions favor the young?  Guess it is a good thing I have a youthful appearance!  Anyhow, good night friends.