“Nothing is more expensive than a?missed opportunity.” H.Jackson Brown JR

I was in grade eight nearing my graduation.  We were having dinner when there was a knock at the door.  My mom thought it was one of our friends, she went to the door and there stood my grade eight teacher.  He started talking to my mother about my education after graduation.  First, he wanted my mom to hold me back a year because I was small for my age.  The second thing stunned my mom and me also. He told my mother to encourage me to take the route of getting a law degree. He also said he believed I was smart enough.

All through my life there has been opportunities that came my way.  Usually though I would shrug them off, I was bound and determine to be a musician, then a preacher.  Those opportunities are now missed opportunities.

I still wrestle with some of those missed opportunities.  I often daydream what life would be like if I would have chosen one of them.  I get the “could’ve, would’ve, should’ve moments.

It has been a long road finding peace with those that I missed.  They were like ghosts hanging around in this thing in me called a mind.

How time has changed things.  To even have a shot of a decent life a person needs a university degree.  Just to be a teacher the minimum from what I understand is a Masters degree. Without a degree you may find yourself pumping gas at an all night convenience store.

When I was a Pastor a mother spoke to me and told me that her daughter dropped out of high school. I gave the mother my assurance that I would speak to her.  One Sunday the daughter attended with her mother.  After the service I asked the daughter if I could have a word with her.  I told her that I was a high school dropout, that I regretted every day of my life.  I heard through the grapevine that the daughter went back to school and graduated from school with a nursing degree.  Before she graduated she already had a job waiting for her.

So, today as I ponder over all those missed opportunities I am trying to find any good thing that has come of all that.  I am finding peace with my missed opportunities!