The Absent Uncle: Service
One of my nieces sent me a really short text last week on Veterans Day. It very simply said “Thank you for your service”.
That short message really got me to thinking about my “service”.
I joined the Navy in 1971 after two very unremarkable years in college. To that point in time I had passed all of the classes I had taken; had a decent grade point average, and with college going well and having a college deferment I did not have to worry about the draft.
But the nagging problem was I had no idea what to do with my education, my life, and most of all – my future. I had started to experience this same feeling in high school and with definite influence from my Mom, I had enrolled in college as a way to find out what I wanted to do.
I was the first of her five children to enroll in college, and being the youngest, she never varied her message that with my grades I needed to go to college. After all, I had good grades, a new state college had been established in Marshall (Minn.) two years earlier, I could stay at home and get a college education on the cheap.
But what to study?
My interests were very broad, much like today. History, business, accounting, politics, sports, teaching, agriculture, philosophy, and the list just goes on.
So, for my first major I selected agri-business. That checked off business, accounting, and agriculture interests. But it wasn’t that interesting. Teaching? At the time it was in a cycle where teachers were not being hired, so that didn’t seem like a smart choice to pursue.
I talked to my Dad about my frustration about I just needed something or someone to tell me what to do. He was never forceful about his opinions, especially this type of question. He let me know that he could/would not tell me what to do – but he did give me one important thought, one I treasure to this day.
From the conversation it was obvious he felt he had very little to no choice but to be a farmer – and that is what he did. In retrospect his envy for me was so evident in his answer about what I should do: “You are very lucky to have choices, figure it out.”
It all worked out. The Navy didn’t give me the answer I was looking for, but it put me a place and time where I had the opportunity for choices, the chance to work hard and gain the skills along the way that would put together an unconventional but rewarding life and career.
I am the one thankful for “my service”.
