I have a strange personality trait. You may label it as adorable or annoying. There’s no middle ground. I immensely enjoy ranking things. It’s a sickness. For example, I charted out 319 Movies that left an impact on me. Grown Ups 2 comes in last. Sorry, Adam Sandler. I did enjoy The Wedding Singer. That film slaps. Nothin’ But a Good Time by Poison tops my best feel-good songs of all time. Fatal Attraction is the scariest movie of all time. Ed was the most underrated TV show of all time. Due to the lack of re-runs, only 0.03 percent of readers know what the show about a bowling alley lawyer is about. I could go on and on. That’s a conversation best served over food truck fare and brewskis at Jefferson Beer Supply.
If you were to read my personal journals, August 20, 1993, is one of the happiest days of my (nearly) half-century on Earth. That was the day I watched my parents drive away from Abel Hall dorms on the campus of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I was left to my own decisions and sweet 18-year-old FREEDOM. I eat what I want, sleep when desired, skip my astronomy course, and live my best life. Looking back, how foolish was I? I mean, really. No one featured on this year’s Top 10 under 40 list was eating Pizza Shuttle at 3 a.m. while watching Beavis and Butthead and not knowing where to locate Ursa Minor in the sky. You learn from your stupidity. Crazy, fun stupidity. Seriously, that pizza might have been cardboard from the recycling bin. If you ate enough, you would see stars. And Pepto-Bismol in your future. Hey, that sounds like a constellation!
God has a wicked sense of humor.
Two weeks ago, my lovely wife, oldest son, and I dropped off my other son at UNL, about four blocks away from my first-year dorm. He was armed with three suitcases, five storage bins, instructions on how to do laundry, and big dreams.
I am happy to report I didn’t tear up. I was strong—at least on the outside. It would be disingenuous to be sad on what would hopefully be one of his Top 10 days. Luckily, he inherited my love of lists and not my hairline. By the lack of texts and calls I received the past week, I know he was charting his own path, growing some wings.
You never know what kind of backgrounds your college roommates will have. To me, that’s the best part about college. Students come from various socio-economic neighborhoods, cultures, politics, and personalities. And we all seemed to get along. Man, if only that vibe would carry over to the rest of society! I realized way back when Nirvana was topping the charts you can learn plenty from a tennis player from Sweden. Find a lifelong buddy from Colorado. Eat pizza at 3 a.m. with a future cop from Florida. And decide to switch your major after a long late-night talk after pizza with a friend from Beatrice, Nebraska.
I hope my son finds his version of Henrik, Preston, Ian, and Jen.
They helped me mold my identity, find my true passion, learn from my mistakes, and encouraged me to take my Astronomy class.
Find my North Star.
By Tony Michaels, a full-time caregiver for his adult son. He’s a “What the Father” podcaster. Creator of www.baldandwitty.com and has too much free time.
