You Will Never

At eighteen I went to work as a roughneck helping drill first wellbores into the Barnett Shale. This was when the Barnett was still considered a source formation, unworthy of targeting, an as-yet untapped potential. Very much like myself fresh out of the public school system. If anyone then had suggested I would someday be a software engineer, I'd have just laughed at them. The public school system tried hard to convince me I wasn't smart enough to be anything but a common laborer my entire life. I heard the words "You will never..." too often.

Those words made me laugh, too, because I knew enough about myself to know that I did actually know how to learn. And I knew early on I wouldn't keep roughnecking very long, dreaming of someday becoming a rock star that would not succumb to its lifestyle excesses.

I figured if I could just release a few top hits then I'd get rich enough to build a mesa-rim retreat where I could park my personal aircraft and fly out to big performance engagements.

Two years attending classes at a university school of music revealed the futility of that goal.

I still dream of performing live to a huge audience every now and again, though. Just once.

It all turned out well enough as it is, providing an interesting life trajectory with fine rewards.

A tune for the mood: You Will Never...