Is it possible to grow character at a time in your life when you can barely remember last week? Character requires vision. Vision of your own character. Visual clarity of your factual situation and clarity concerning the import of what you do.
Do we really know much about our character? How do we find anything about our character? One could ask the people around him. But how clear is the vision of the people around us? What is the motivation of the people around us? How flawed is their vision?
Another problem is that our character can, and probably does change as we age. What we are willing to do or unwilling to do now is probably different than what we did when we were younger.
When I was in high school I had a lot of confidence about the different factors in my life. In football, I was the captain of the football team, most valuable player as a junior, Dekalb County defensive lineman of the week in the third week of my senior season. Even though we didn't win all of our games, I felt like we had a chance to win every game. I played without my glasses, squinting at the sidelines to get the defensive signal from Coach Sparks. I was confident enough to realize that my tone of voice could affect the level of play of the defenders of which I was the captain.
In school, I had no real problems. Even in mathematics, in which I had no real confidence, I made decent grades. Everything else came relatively easy. I made good grades without really trying.
In school politics, I lost two major elections before finally winning school wide election in my junior year. I took a chance in my final speech and beat my fist on the podium and declared my fellow students to be people who did not use their brains. I won by the highest of margins.
Now, I have to recapture that confidence. I need to emotionally feel security in all of the different facits of my life. I need to do whatever is necessary to support safety and security. I think I can grow confidence. I need help but I there are things I can do to help myself.
About Me
- TBAYNHAMIII
- I was born in Kentucky, though my parents had been living in Knoxville before my birth. My mother's mother lived across the street from the hospital in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, which was convenient. I moved around quite a bit when I was young, but ended up in Georgia. I like to read and write and love food and drink way too much. I have a funny wife and daughter who has finished her batchelor's degree and is living with her grandmother in North Atlanta and studying advertising. I sometimes wonder what life would have been like if I had not gone to law school. Regrets come and go with the seasons.
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