Had a conversation this week with a guy I've known since the 4th grade. During grade school we were some of the best friends you could be. The interaction of that friendship grew and shrunk over the years due to other things we were involved in, but we remained friends. This friend knew me at a low point in life, this was back when I was going to a psychiatrist due to some family dynamic issues... this was back when I would try to commit suicide... this was back when I would steal from a local store without hesitation... I literally (literally...) lived on the wrong side of the tracks. But this friends parents let me hang out with their family and their son. I was able to see a life better then the poverty I was in. I saw some functional family dynamics.
Now that I am at a high point, he said to me; "Out of all my friends I've had you have worked the hardest to get to where you are. You didn't have the advantages that many of my friends had, but you worked hard to get yourself out of it."
I then tried to push it back to people like him, because it was friends like him that showed me a better life. Poverty breeds poverty, and they showed me what you could accomplish if you moved yourself ahead in life. I can actually name a five friends that helped me become who I am. I am in contact with three of them, I know the path that one of them has walked down. Then I am not in contact with the fifth. Two of them I consider great friends. The one has found himself in and out of jail. The fourth is my wife. It was about the 8th grade where I stopped walking the line between a punk and a young man... and I can only give her credit for that... amazing what a hormone driven boy will do to impress a girl :-)
But the subject of my post, I find compliments like the one my friend gave me hard to accept. Because it is by the grace of God that I am where I am. Why me? There are many others who work harder then me, but find themselves in the vicious cycle of poverty. Why should I succeed while others fail? How can I take the credit for what God blessed me with? And He has blessed me. Two of my three IT related jobs came directly from churches I have attended. My friends parents accepted me as I was... which is challenging for me with my own children. I see so many of their friends are me all over again. I only hope our family can be that beacon for them that my friends families were for me.
Alright, enough rambling for the night.