I had kind of an interesting experience today. It kind of made me re-realize a few things about life. If I tell you this story, maybe it'll help you take a deeper look into the reality of this reality, and maybe provide you with a few ideas about life.
 
Anyway, I was checking out at the supermarket today. I got speaking to this young lady. As we were both walking the same direction, after we checked out, we walked through the parking lot together, continuing to talk about the generalized stuff of nothing.
 
Her car came up first. Me, I always park way in the back of a parking lot as I like to get my steps in whenever possible. Anyway, we walked up to her car, and I noticed it was a brand-new Mercedes. It still had paper tags on it. It was one of those custom color models. You know, they're really high-end and really nice. I made the comment to her, “Nice car.” She answered, “Yeah, I just got it for my eighteenth birthday.”
 
I said, “See ya,” and we parted ways. But, as I walked away, I couldn't help but jokingly think, “It should’ve been me.”
 
I mean, here we were, this young girl and I, in completely different stages of life. We had a really nice conversation. But, seeing her birthday present, it did make me think about how where you start out, truly equals where you end up.
 
I think back to my first, “Girlfriend.” And, I'm putting girlfriend in air quotation marks. You know, when you're in junior high school, (I guess it's called middle school now), and you like somebody and they like you and you decide that you're going to become a thing.
 
Anyway, this girl lived in a palatial mansion. It was truly gigantic. It had a pool, a tennis court, even a basketball court. Me, I lived in a one-bedroom apartment with my mother, on the wrong side of the tracks. My father had died a few years before this. So, my mother would take the bus to work every day, and I would do what a young teenager does, go to school and stuff.
 
Needless to say, that girl was way out of my league.
 
I'm always interested to see how people evolve through their life. Most of the people I've been friends with, throughout my many years, came from what may defined as either the lower classes or the middle classes of America. And, they pretty much remained within that game, doing whatever it is that they did, to get through life. There's certainly nothing wrong with this. That's life! But, it's always interesting for me to see how people evolve when they're really given all the opportunities when they're young, in their life, like this girl I'm speaking about.
 
I've known a few people that have risen from their initial definitions. Mostly, it seems, however, it's really them doing things on the backs of other people when this occurs.
 
I've known a couple of women who came from humble beginnings, but then they married some guy with money. They stayed married for a few years and then divorced the guy, keeping much of the money, the house, the car, and getting alimony and things like that. From this, they were truly able to raise their game. But, I can't help but wonder what is the karma in all of that?
 
Hell, I even know a man, who was part of my extended family, for a number of years. This guy, when the divorce went into motion, he got to keep the house. A house that his wife had predominantly paid for. Plus, he gets a big palimony check every month. Every time she gets a raise, he gets a raise. In my mind, this guy is not even a man. He's a total loser! But again, that's just the reality of this reality. Some people rise to the top on the backs of other people. Again, what is the karma in that?
 
You know, I think we all try to work hard and become the best that we can be. I know I've done that. I'm the only person who graduated from college in my family. As I'm the last of the line, I can't compare that to anything else. But, I know I’ve tried to become the best I could be.  Not on the back of anyone else. Simply by my working very hard to achieve.
 
Have I achieved the level to where I could buy my eighteen-year-old daughter, (if I had one), a brand-new customized Mercedes? No. I've never come anywhere close to that level of opulence. But, I've tried hard to become the best that I could be; taking nothing from anyone.
 
So, what does this tell us about life? It tells us that where you start out is highly definitive about where you will end up. We all hope for that big dream of massive success that we hear about that other people have lived. And, I hope it will happen for you. I wish it would have happened for me. All I know about me, and my life, is that I've worked really, really hard; tirelessly, and I've achieved a few things, but nowhere near the level of what I'd hoped I'd achieve.
 
How about you? Did you reach your goals?
 
In closing, I don't know whatever happened to my first girlfriend? I imagine she lived a pretty good life. She came from the background where she could have lived a really good life. As for the rest of us, all we can do is what we can do, and do it the best that we can do.
 
But remember, if you take stuff from somebody else, you're always going to be looked down upon. You're always going to be considered a person who couldn’t make it on their own.
 
Any maybe, just maybe, if you work really-really hard you can climb up to the level where you can give your daughter a brand new Mercedes for her eighteenth birthday.