That's Right, Kid

Grown ups love telling children, "You can be anything you want to be." 

When I was very young I thought that this meant I could become a dog ... that's what I wanted to be. 

When I got a bit older, I wanted to be my dad. 

And I sort of wanted to be Tommy Bowman. He was a neighborhood kid who was cool before any of us knew what cool was.

Then Spiderman. He was cooler than Tommy Bowman.

As we grew up, adult relatives and teachers kept drilling the mantra into our developing grey matter, "You can be anything you want to be."

And they usually added suggestions: "A doctor. A lawyer. President of the United States."

I'm not sure if adults still use "President of the United States" as an aspirational goal. That might've ended with Nixon. Or some of the more recent chuckleheads to hold the position.

Anyway, it was kinda reassuring as I hit my teens. "You can be anything you want to be." There's comfort in knowing you have control over your future. 

Granted, at the time, all I really wanted to do was find girls who would have sex with me, but it was nice to know that I could end up being anything I wanted to be.

It took me until my mid-twenties to figure out the second part of that phrase. The part the grown ups had never mentioned. The part that matters. 

 

The part I started telling my kids when they hit double-digits. 10-years-old. 

Damned if I was gonna let it sneak up on them, like it did on their old man. 

"You can be anything you want to be ... if you are willing to commit to the level necessary to attain that goal."

Today is the opening day of the Summer Olympics.

There are lots of people who want to compete in the Olympic games.

Not everybody is willing to pay the price.