h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've tended to drift through life, according to what opportunities have turned up, so I suppose you could say my whole life has been a bit aimless. My epitaph might be ‘it seemed like a good idea at the time’.

I don't think I wasted my youth altogether, although I sometimes wish I'd been a bit more wild & irresponsible & not so keen to be older!

Hopes & dreams for the future - some of them are unfulfilled but may yet be. I’ve probably got more plans now than I used to have - I’m more aware of my options and capabilities.

Did I know how I'd turn out? Well, I used to say I'd get married when I was 25 (turned out to be 24) and live next door to my parents (half an hour's drive away). I couldn't imagine being as old as I am now or how I might be living.

What would my younger self think of me? A middle-aged, old-fashioned worthy citizen is how, as a child, I viewed people my age. My children seem to think I'm fairly cool, so perhaps I would too. I think I'd admire the confidence I have now - or at least appear to have.

I wonder what will turn up next in my life?

Well put. I think it's most important to instill good habits in kids, then turn them loose on the world. I was lucky enough to have been told and shown the right ways to do a large number of things, and then set off. Military service got the dedication to the organization completely out of me, and since then I've chosen to follow my heart and let the money follow. And it does. I've also chosen to live on a tropical island and enjoy life on a daily basis. So, I think the young me would think I'm pretty cool.

Funny, I've never really thought of the Keys as tropical in the sunny sense. I can remember seeing a film (Bogart?) where it was always wet & windy. Hurricane or monsoon or something.

I think the movie "Key Largo" did take place during a hurricane. And I'll admit January wasn't the best weather on record, either, but it's 81 degrees today, and I'll take it. It beats the pants off two feet of snow in Washington D.C. and New York...

Yes, that's the one - I remembered the title later on. Oh, I'd love a bit of warm sunshine - we had some sun today but the air temperature was way down.

It's funny you say you followed your heart first. That is what I always thought I would do, but now that I am at college amassing a small fortune in debit.....It is starting to seem like all that follow your dream stuff, was for people getting education for free.

Ouch! It does seem way unfair that the first thing the American system does is ask you to shoulder a mountain of debt for the education that will allow you to pay for it. But trust me, it will equip you to pay for it much better than hopping into the wage stream instead. I'm sure you exhaustively researched financing prior to setting off for school, but there will be additional grants available as you complete your specialties, so keep up the search. I even got a grant for being left-handed.

I'd like my kids to avoid the brain-washing of college and do something productive, like plumbing or carpentry. Better money, steady work, and they could be their own bosses.

Oh yeah, and no college loans.

The hard part is getting them interested in a good paying trade. My dad tricked me into woodworking and carpentry by telling me that art school would only be useful if I had the technical skills to use the tools. Same with welding. And I have used those two fallback skills in some pretty tough situations to keep food on the table and a roof over my head.

I'd rather be a carpenter than a computer programmer. Carpenters have something of substance at the end of the day, that they can look at, touch, and feel some sense of accomplishment with.