From GED to MBA

I’m a high school drop out. Does it surprise you to know that?

That’s a serious question.

I don’t hide that I’m a high school drop out from anyone it is actually something I’m proud of.

I dropped out because I refused to play the game that an ego-tripping judge wanted to play all because I got mono and missed a bunch of school but still kept my grades up. I refused to be bullied and shoved into a box I didn’t belong even by someone in our judicial system who would lie to my face telling me my weekly drug tests for 6 months were for my “own good.” 200 hours community service too. I passed every drug test because I wasn’t on drugs and the silliness of having to miss school each week just to take the drug test brought on an additional truancy charge! I wasn’t the delinquent he wanted me to be. But he sure did try to teach me a lesson. (BTW I was 17, grown people get harsher sentences for worse “crimes” than mono-induced truancy )

He didn’t know me and he didn’t care to know me he had an idea that since I missed school I was a piece of trash he could make an example of. He didn’t know that I’m a fighter. He didn’t know that I stand up to bullies. He didn’t know that I would take the “hard” road over playing his game. The day I turned 18 I signed myself out of school. I immediately tested for my GED and at my next court date, I told him it was over I refused to allow him to dictate my life until graduation and hold me to ridiculous standards because I had the misfortune of contracting a virus.

Game over, dickhead.

I have to thank that judge though. He woke something in me. He woke a fighter. He woke the part of me that says, “Bring it” when shit gets tough. He is the starting point for the Warrior you see today.

But if you’re still with me I do have one more point to make. You are NOT defined by ONE decision or moment in your life.

If I let my dropping out of high school define me then I wouldn’t be the person I am today. One moment and one decision (good or bad) should not be a driving factor for who you are years later. Yes it can contribute to who you are BUT IT DOES NOT DEFINE YOU.

If I was just a GED I would never have become the MBA.

There are going to be times where you have to make a choice or do a thing that you (and others) may try to define you as but you are a human and you are allowed to live your life (without infringement on others).

You are allowed to move past that moment.

You are allowed to grow and be better than yesterday.

You are allowed to make mistakes.

You are allowed to do things intentionally.

You are allowed to choose the hard road.

Do not ever think that because you made a choice years ago that you cannot move forward from it – that’s why you were granted this life and these days.

Friends, I implore you, if you are struggling to move past what you are holding on to as a “defining moment,” seek counseling be it through a friend or a trained professional. Just talk it out. Because you only get to be you once.