I remember thinking “ok there’s a future doctor, and there’s a great manager of some sort”
But I never really grokked that everyone from those classes is now in society somewhere. Remember that idiot sitting there chewing the wood on his desk? He probably has a job now - what on earth is he doing?!
He figured out that school wasn’t working, went into heavy machinery operation, bought himself an excavator as soon as he could, and went into business for himself. Now his peers were finishing university and he was settling into his first home and buying new machines for his business.
He wasn’t an academic, but he was smart and self aware enough to pursue what made sense to him. Super humble guy, too.
When the same kinds of people who used to laugh at him were shocked that he bought a home while they couldn’t afford one for a decade or more, he was extremely modest about it.
I suspect he had some positive mentorship in the mix somewhere. But also, his struggles in school weren’t strong indicators of his overall competence and potential. Just enough to cause him to give up on school. I’m glad it worked out for him.
Many people who appeared like him superficially are likely not doing so well.
The furniture had an uncanny resemblance to the furniture in the run-down public school I went to.
And the drawing on the walls unmistakably resembled the writing on the public school toilets, too.
And it occurred to me. It's the same people. And their hand writing and stick men had not improved.
Vonnegut