MLMM Photo Challenge #376- Choosing

When Michael was a high school senior, he was barraged by advice, especially, the kind that promoted going to college. He felt dizzy the whole year!

Guidance counsellors, teachers, neighbors, and his parents brought up the subject nearly on a daily basis telling him not to waste his excellent academic record on anything else. He dutifully applied to ten different universities and was accepted by three of them.

He was ranked 3rd in his graduating class of 422 so his gang of ‘college cheerleaders’ were a bit baffled that he wasn’t accepted by them all until they found out that many of those colleges were aggressively chasing minority and female candidates before white males.
Yet, Michael wasn’t discouraged in the least by those biased preferences because he secretly hadn’t even decided he wanted to go.

A journeyman electrician had spoken to his class recently and the idea of being a lineman was exciting to him. Except for being an emergency surgeon, there was no more honorable occupation than that. Many counted on electricity for their very life!

One evening, he handed his parents a brochure for a ten month trade school for electricians and appealed to their pocketbook. The training would cost about one third of one year at college and, should he decide to go to college, he’d be leaving in deep debt . He won the argument.
Some of his classmates called him an ignorant rube for making the trade school decision but Michael never looked back.

Eight years later:
He’s twenty-six and has a well paying, exciting job, has bought his own land and built a house, AND he’s debt free. He knew not one of his university classmates who could make the same claim. Who’s the ignorant rube now?

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