While I agree with my mother’s last blog post for the most part, I have some additional thoughts.

With respect to the experiment where high school students  line up for a race and the winner would receive a scholarship to the college of their choice, but those students who had certain “advantages” were permitted to take several steps closer to the finish line:  having an advantage isn’t a guarantee for success.  Also, it assumes that everyone is motivated by the same goal.

While some of the students started closer to the goal, the finish line never changed.  If someone wants to achieve something badly enough, there’s no obstacle that will stand in his/her way of obtaining it. It is up to each individual to find and use the resources at their disposal to the best of their ability and not feel guilty about it.

An advantage can just as easily be squandered.  In these days of the being all-inclusive and the “everyone-gets-a-trophy”-mentality, quite a number of people think just because they have these “advantages” they don’t have to try as hard because everybody’s the same in the end.  Life doesn’t work that way–either lead, follow, or get the heck out of the way.

Here are two close-to-home examples to illustrate my point:

My dad was orphaned when he was 15. He and his brother and sister went to live with an aunt and uncle who had four boys of their own.  Yes, it’s a set-back, but Dad had a goal. He wanted to go to college, so  when he graduated high school, he found a company to work for that would pay for his education, and started as a mailroom messenger at the age of 17. Four decades later he retired from the same company as vice president and manager of one of their largest branches, having built a successful career in banking and raising a family along the way.

On the other hand there are some who receive advantages that put them ahead of others pursuing a similar goal. My son wants to be a career firefighter in the worst way, and he has what would be considered advantages. He’s an Eagle Scout, athletic, served as president of his fraternity in college and helped start a chapter in a neighboring college, a very active volunteer firefighter and EMT,  works for an ambulance company and part-time as security for a major sports venue. But sometimes the best person for the job doesn’t always get the job.

I recently had the opportunity to  provide  standby emergency service at live burn training sessions for a class of fire recruits who were nearing the end of their academy time (not in the same state where my son lives). The partners I was working with at that assignment have many years’ experience as first responders. During the sessions, we discussed our observations, mainly about the perceived lack of excitement and leadership among the teams of recruits.

I’ve known dozens of firefighters, both volunteer and career, and many have described being a firefighter as being the “greatest job in the world”. Occasionally the instructors would pass by where we were posted, and when we asked them about their assessment of the recruits, they commented that they were concerned about how they would fare when they got “on the job”.

Apparently the mayor had issued a directive that everyone who put in the time to complete the academy had to pass regardless of their performance. One veteran fire officer even said that he’d be very wary of leaving the training division to go back on the street if these were the men and women who would be responsible for rescuing him if something went wrong on a job.  Even if they had the skills, they didn’t have the passion.

A willingness to work as hard as needed to achieve a goal is as important as having the so called advantages.  Ask the hare how the race worked out for him. If he won’t tell you, I’m sure the tortoise will.

Ed O’Connell, EMT