When I was a little boy, I read books about paleontology, astronomy, and other scientific subjects. I secretly thought I would eventually come up with a radical new breakthrough and become famous. Since I didn't know what relativity or other physics terms really meant, I'd imagine myself calculating trajectories of baseballs and basketballs in my head. I pretended I had a supercomputer inside my skull that could calculate each position of a ball out to 14 decimal places as it moved through the air.
When I was in junior high and early high school, science lost a bit of its appeal for me. I fantasized about becoming a famous writer. I thought I would write a best-selling science fiction or fantasy novel, which were the only books I read at that time. In ninth grade I got third place in a national humorous writing competition for making fun of modern poetry. I even asked for a dictionary and a thesarus for Christmas.
Then I got good scores on some tests and ended up with a full ride scholarship to college. I thought, great, now I'm really on my way to shaking things up. I must truly be the cream of the crop. Look out world, here I come.
Where is all this going? This is the time of year when they hand out promotions at work. I wasn't expecting to get promoted, far from it. I earn a great salary and enjoy above average job satisfaction overall. However, seeing other people get promoted higher and higher above me makes me realize I'm not on the world-famous-genius track anymore. I'm not even on the VP-of-a-mid-sized-corporation track. Heck, I may never make it into middle management!
Now I realize that very, very few people do something extraordinary enough to be remembered 200 years after their deaths. That's okay. I'm thankful for the life I've been given and don't need posterity to validate my existence for me. When I was nine, I guess I didn't get that.
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Well, first I am glad that you aren't Albert Einstein... you have much better hair! And second... I will remember you 200 years after your death and so will your kids and so will God and your mom and dad and... lots of people (of course we'll be dead too.) But when you were nine did you think that you would travel to Europe? Did you think that you would have run two marathons? Did you plan on being Eastern Orthodox? Did you know that you would have travelled to Brazil? Did you know that you would have the two cutest kids in the whole world and the most wonderful wife ever? :) Anyway... I have a wonderful realization that I am not married to the next Albert Einstein but am instead married to YOU! Thank heavens!!!!
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