Life Changing Moments

Instead of it being one paticular class or person that changed my thinking, it was rather a group of about three or four men who changed my thinking.   Most of them were teachers, but one just a friend that I had met.   All of them had been through very rough times, and were great examples of what men should be.   Two of them were teachers, one for ethics and one for debate.   The other was probably one of the most radical people I had ever met.   Just by listening to them, and how they had lived the early years of their lives made me look up to them.   All three had been through horrible stuff and had lived through it to tell what it was like.    As we teenagers grow up into our tweens, we have many ideologies of what life is like as a celebrity or someone with great popularity and wealth.   We tend to naively look at these lifestyles as if they are the best way to live.   One of the three influential people that I have learned from lived that perfect American dream.   He had expensive cars, grew up with big names such as Steve Mcqueen and John Wayne, dated playboy bunnies, had large amounts of wealth, and was a soccer and tennis pro.   But by the time he had hit 25, most of his life's accomplishments had washed down the drain through various means.   To be continued...