Wings:

• Unlimited Intellectual curiosity: damaged, but potentially restorable*
• Unconstrained imagination & creativity: damaged, but potentially restorable*. 
• Positive extracurricular successes : sports, school, Girl Scouts, church, etc.

Anecdote 2: My high school’s problem student, dropped out of school. A couple of years later I met him working at a local lumber store.

I asked the owner, a friend, about my problem student was working out. He beamed telling me how good an employee he was. 

So, rebirth's possible, in spite of school issues, maybe even inherent in us.

Anchors:

1. Possibly,, a continually humiliating academic experience, low test score’s self-worth damage, and an Unjustified belief you ACTUALLY have low intelligence & ability.
2. Possibly, a cynical attitude toward forced, memorization-based ‘learning’ except hands-on, useful or self-discovered knowledge. 
3. Possibly, contradiction between poor academic performance & school behavior vs your success outside of school.(music, computer games, motorcycle mechanics, etc.) 
4. Possibly, No trusted adult mentor: parental or teacher.
5. Possibly, passive parents: loving & inspiring, or not.
6. Possibly, new or hardened prejudices without non-judgmental questioning of yourself, others, & knowledge/learning.

    1. Family:

I remember little off my teenage family years. 

My father was involved with professional associations, writing a B&W photography textbook & playing tennis. He bought a junker car for me to rebuild like my friend Larry Webster had done, but that initiative quickly ended and we junked it. 

Dad occasionally attempted to engage with my outdoor world, but not directly. (my Boy Scout troop’s bookkeeper.) I suspect his father treated him the same. We never regularly played tennis together.

My mother/brother cabal persisted, but I managed to avoid it with a part-time job at JCPenney, cross country running sport, girl friend and my own bedroom attic’s refuge. I marveled at my father's quiet endurance of my mother.

      Anecdote :

One Saturday in the car with my Dad after my mother's particularly brutal physical & melodramatic attack the night before , I asked him whey he did not divorce her.            He was too honorable to respond.

       Anecdote:

Once I ran into the street screaming , “They’re fighting! They’re fighting.”        I was sorely frightened.

I had learned to avoid conflict with them both, but I learned to recognize the dark arts of hypocrisy, lying, another’s self-serving agenda & manipulation. etc. 

     Anecdote 1:

Once I crept close to overhear my mother bragging my Boy Scout & Church success to her bridge club girls, then shortly after they were gone ridiculing me for something.   

I learned ‘hypocrisy’ early on

     Anecdote 2:

When I decided to run for Student Body President she ridiculed my ambition, Calling it foolish. Fortunately, my ‘character’ pushed me on. I almost won.😃

Definitely the prime reason I was obsessed with girlfriends, but in capable of sustaining one. Sadly, in many of my relationships I saw my mother in the woman, yet with many girlfriends I was driven by the ‘desperate love’ that bound my father to my mother. In retrospect, a terrifying obsessive compulsion addiction.

Unfortunately, my year-younger sister, was a near anonymous family member lost to me in my battle with ‘the’ cabal.

Family:

1. Did I, a teen, understood any better my mother’s dislike of me? ..or why?   Apparently not.

Only as an adult did I look back & guess the source of her low self-worth & tyrannical manipulation of an entire family. 

Perhaps, she resented my father's high professional status & respect. She physically & verbally abused this fine, noble, loyal man. I saw it, but could not understand it.

2) Did my mother’s hypocritical public applause of me coupled with her constant private denigration of me, even tho I excelled in all but academics, effect me?                Probably.

I knew she was many things Boy Scouts & church had taught me not to be: dishonest, duplicitous, phony, vindictive, selfish, manipulative, unfair, & violent. I am hypersensitive to those traits in others & in girlfriends particularly. 

      Anecdote 1:

Once I crept close to overhear my mother bragging my Boy Scout & Church success to her bridge club girls, then shortly after they were gone ridiculing me for something.   

I learned ‘hypocrisy’ early on

     Anecdote 2:

When I decided to run for Student Body President she ridiculed my ambition, Calling it foolish. Fortunately, my ‘character’ pushed me on. I almost won.😃

3) Did I recognize my family’s dysfunctional battleground?          Yes.

I recognized that my friend’s home-life was wonderfully pleasant, but I saw no options.

        Anecdote :

One Saturday in the car with my Dad after my mother's particularly brutal physical & melodramatic attack the night before , I asked him whey he did not divorce her. 

He was too honorable to respond.

       Anecdote:

Once I ran into the street screaming , “They’re fighting! They’re fighting.” I was sorely frightened.

2. School: 

      a. Public High School:

Hating boring oppressive public middle/high school like a wild animal trapped in a cage, I reverted to my earlier academic failure & behavioral issues with massive smoldering family upheavals AND seeking solace with more rebellious friends. 

I started Each new school year enthusiastically, yet inexorably the  grinding, slogging classroom boredom washed over me like heavy lava - depressing, stifling my optimistic intentions … except for Geometry which foreshadowed my future organizational & logic talents.

While this teen tale looks pretty pessimistic, ironically during this same period I became an Eagle Scout with a Palm, barely missed being elected as a high school president and was head of my church group. When I told my mother I was gong to run for high school president she ridiculed my intention.  Go figure. 

In my middle -late teens I realized that I had ‘curiosity”, but not for force-fed academic. Perhaps it re-borm by the many hands-on Boy Scout merit badges I achieved.

      b. Manlius Military High School

In desperation, my parents shipped me off to Manlius Military High School where I excelled within the military structure & regimentation rapidly rising to officer status, but alas, still struggling mightily with studies.

It was here I learned I could take responsibiity for myself & others, could act independently with confidence. 

           Anecdote:

             Major Middelton, the adult commandant over all cadets once ordered me as 2nd Lieutenant of my platoon to do something (can't recall) that would jeopardize the legitimate goals of my platoon. In UNmilitary fashion, I refused until he backed down & recanted. Even now, looking back, I am surprised that at 16 I had that much confidence & responsibility to my men. 

Finally, after an extra Manlius school year I graduated having performed well enough to get a rare Appointment to the new US Air force Academy.

    2. USAFA:

United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a great institution which taught me very powerful life lessons.

     1) "You never reach your limit?"

         Anecdote:

           After our Plebe squadron's exhausting 2 hour run in the nearby hills, during lunch our upperclassman asked me jokingly, "If I would like to repeat the run after lunch?" To his surprise, "I instantly answered, "Yes" and we did, ....both of us proving "You never reach your limit."

     2) "Defend your honor."

         Anecdote:

           Racing up several flights of stairs to sign in before being late from our Sunday leave, an upper classman apparently yelled for us/me to stop. I never heard him. Later he filled an Honor Violation against us for ignoring his command forcing us to appear individually before the Honor Board. 

           Very little trumps the seriousness & fear of an Honor Board's inquiry which suspects you violated the Honor Code: expulsion within 24 horus. I was so scared that I remember ‘feeling’ like my body was slowly rotating right in my chair.

          After their cross exam of me, I boldly replied, "If you think I am guilty, then I don't want to be part of this Academy." I was excused. Nothing was said again.

     3) "Strive for excellence when required."

Perfectly shined shoes, room inspection's neatly folded underwear, precisely memorized military quotes, etc. was demanded; failure gave you demerits & hours marching with rifle on your shoulder. 

I have the highest regard for USAFA and it graduates, but my lack of academic skills could not be offset by my military enthusiasm. 

Also, after 2 years I realized I did not want a life of regimented military life.

          Anecdote: 

              At dinner I challenged ‘something’ (regulation, practice etc - don’t remember). An upperclassman forcefully responded, “You don’t question. You just follow orders.”

I understood the need for that mindset, but it rankled me.

I shot pool for 2 weeks before exams to insure I would fail & be honorablly dismissed weeks later. Telling a lie (falsely saying “Yes Sir. I shined my shoes.” gets you dishonorably expelled next day.

Only much later would I fully appreciate the contradiction between my academic inadequacy and my rare & difficult-to-get appointment to USAFA. Only later would I realize how USAFA had firmed my confidence in my capabilities.

          Anecdote: 

              Every few years for decades into my 60s I would have a dream in which the Academy was letting me back in to complete my 4 years.

Brain's lingering guilt, or asking me to re-evaluate decision, or merely revisiting my earlier decision?

School:

1. Did I recognize my academic boredom?

Yes! As earlier, I simply presumed, that my academic failure was an inherent, non-correctable personal defect. No light switch I could just flip to correct; a depressing force.

2. Did I yet ‘understand’ my father’s admonition that ‘getting good grades’ was the avenue to this ‘success’ he spoke of?  

I tried to empathize with father’s concerns on my behalf, but never understood his vision for my future ‘success.’

How could a teen ‘understand’ ‘success’ in some far off illusory career? It was not relevant.

3. Why didn’t the epiphany of my rediscovered curiosity translate into school greater academics success?

Boy Scout activities & Boy Scout hands-on Merit Badges I completed perhaps triggered my reborn curiosity & hands-on learning, but public school classes were too rigid, too forced memorization, too irrelevant and terribly boring.

4. Did I ever consciously think about the disconnect between poor academics & success outside of school.        NO!

I suspect I simply accepted my poor academics as a given, while I gravitated to outside pursuits I could enjoy & succeed at. 

5. Could/did I blame anyone?    NO!

I knew my mother/brother cabal made me a wary outsider within my own family. I didn't like it, but I didn't consciously blame anyone. Just my life. 

Sadly, my Dad, in a ‘last, everything must be discussed conversation’ a year or so before he died, asked me why I disliked my mother so.

I told him, “1. She & my brother were my enemies for as long as I could remember, and 2. You, Dad, NEVER defended me against her .” He nodded, finally realizing and apparently understanding.

6. What key fundamental future factors should I have been considering?

I have no memory of thinking about my future perhaps because: 

     1) Parents never gave me positive encouragement, just dire warnings.

     2) Usually my mother bemoaned & sighed my inadequacies like parents of the handicapped might reluctantly do. 

7. Should/could I have imagined my future & self corrected? 

Briefly, I did, … kinda. At 17 FWTR I became enthralled with new U.S. Air Force Academy being built in Colorado Springs, applied & was accepted

TRAVEL:

Other than bus trips to Boy Scout’s summer school, no travel in teens inspired travel in general. Not a surprise really. Why would I?

Travel Specific Questions:

1. Can a teen grasp the concept of foreign travel?     Certainly

Based on subject matter & experiences they are exposed to.

2. Can a teen naturally develop a desire for foreign travel? Possibly

Again, based on resources/media’s subject matter & experiences they are exposed to & naturally respond to without overt persuasion.

This can be greatly enhanced by student tours abroad, exchange student programs, family trips abroad and various classes: history, art etc., if interesting.

3. Can parents, teachers etc facilitate such a desire. Of course

Global issue discussion, international media (sub-titles).

Actual Travel: family, school group travel, exchange students

Media that explains & promotes foreign travel.

Travel Specific Questions:

1. Can a teen grasp the concept of foreign travel?     Certainly

Based on subject matter & experiences they are exposed to.

2. Can a teen naturally develop a desire for foreign travel? Possibly

Again, based on resources/media’s subject matter & experiences they are exposed to & naturally respond to without overt persuasion.

This can be greatly enhanced by student tours abroad, exchange student programs, family trips abroad and various classes: history, art etc., if interesting.

3. Can parents, teachers etc facilitate such a desire. Of course

Global issue discussion, international media (sub-titles).

Actual Travel: family, school group travel, exchange students

Media that explains & promotes foreign travel.

C. 20s:

   1. Family:

I was raised in a middle-class family of a college educated father and high school educated mother who apparently always resented my father's education and his high corporate world success. Early on I was aware that she had little regard for me, yet great protective affection for my younger brother.

At 10 & 12, my father shipped me alone for summers to my mother’s parents on Manitoba, Canada’s plains to, as Grandma quipped, “…to get me away from my mother for at least the summers.” 

Most wonderful period of my early life. Loving, warm huge grandmother, taciturn Scotch (Edinburg direct )grandfather & wonderful manly role model, Uncle Bill.

Wonderful boyhood adventures: tent sleep in a tent with uncle’s dog, Pete, fishing, shooting rifles, big County Fair, boating & constantly in boyish trouble working in my grandfather’s then almost antique (70 years ago) small downtown grocery store. 

2. School:

PIK school girl

Even in kindergarten I was often expelled from class for disruptive behavior. I hated school’s boring regimentation. 

      Anecdote 1: In kindergarten, 1) I was 86’d from the play house, 2) scolded for blocking Office Clerk’s entry with large (2' x2') play blocks, 3) would not sleep quietly on my blanket during ‘milk’ break.

      Anecdote 2: In 2rd Grade I had my own chair in the hallway outside our classroom. Later I was switched to a different teacher.

In 3rd grade, I was moved to a different teacher’s class, but still had a worn path 😃 to office of the Principal who once flicked my ear with his finger & told my mother, "Scott is just not very intelligent.”      

     Anecdote 3: In 4^th grade, my Math teacher threw chalk at me hitting me just below the left eye?

     Anecdote 4: Later, in 4^th grade, my father, before I was expelled, placed me in private catholic Nazareth Elementary boys schoola, to hopefully re-direct my path. My bad behavior briefly continued until school’s Principle, Sister Mary Patrice, whacked me over the knuckles & advised that I had 2 weeks to ‘shape-up’ or I was expelled.    I did. 

Then back in public high school’s 8^th grade hopefully rehabilitated, I still hated school, warred with my mother, enjoyed Cub Scouts and my church group. I lasted until thru 10th grade, when Dad removed before expulsion to Manlius Military School. 

3. Travel:

PIK school girl

Every summer as a young child my dislocated parents would drive from New York to Manitoba Canada or Nova Scotia, Canada to visit their parents. A long boring slog in an old car left no travel memories: foreign or domestic. 

At 10 & 12, my father shipped me alone for summers to my mother’s parents on Manitoba, Canada’s plains to, as Grandma quipped, “…to get me away from my mother for at least the summers.” 

Most wonderful period of my early life. Loving, warm huge grandmother, taciturn Scotch (Edinburg direct )grandfather & wonderful manly role model, Uncle Bill.

Wonderful boyhood adventures: tent sleep in a tent with uncle’s dog, Pete, fishing, shooting rifles, big County Fair, boating & constantly in boyish trouble working in my grandfather’s then almost antique (70 years ago) small downtown grocery store. 

Yet, in spite of the solo 3 day railroad trip to wonderful Grandma’s experience, it spawned NO specific desire to travel for travel’s sake.…

B. Teens:

., yet sought solace with more rebelliious frineds. 

    1. Middle & high School: 

Hating boring oppressive middle/high school like a wild animal trapped in a cage, I reverted to my earlier academic failure & behavioral issues including more rebellious friends and massive smoldering family upheaval. 

I started Each new school year enthusiastically, yet inexorably the  grinding, slogging classroom boredom washed over me like heavy lava - depressing, stifling my optimistic intentions … except for Geometry which foreshadowed my future organizational & logic talents.

While this teen tale looks pretty pessimistic, ironically during this same period I became an Eagle Scout with a Palm, barely missed being elected as a high school president and was head of my church group. When I told my mother I was gong to run for high school president she ridiculed my intention.  Go figure. 

In my middle -late teens I realized that I had ‘curiosity”, but not for force-fed academic. Perhaps it re-borm by the many hands-on Boy Scout merit badges I achieved.

In desperation, my parents shipped me off to Manlius Military High School where I excelled within the military structure & regimentation rapidly rising to officer status, but alas, still struggling mightily with studies.

It was here I learned I could take responsibiity for myself & others, could act independently with confidence. 

Anecdote:

Major Middelton, the adult commandant over all cadets once ordered me as 2nd Lieutenant of my platoon to do something (can't recall) that would jeopardize the legitimate goals of my platoon. In UNmilitary fashion, I refused until he backed down & recanted. Even now, looking back, I am surprised that at 16 I had that much confidence & responsibility to my men. 

Finally, after an extra Manlius school year I graduated having performed well enough to get a rare Appointment to the new US Air force Academy.

    2. USAFA, 

Regimine excellence, academic challeneged, 

USAFA is a great institution which taught me very powerful life lessons.

     1) "You have never reached your limit?"

         Anecdote:

           After the squadron's exhausting 2 hour run in the nearby hills, during lunch our upperclassman asked me jokingly, "If I would like to repeat the run after lunch?" To his surprise, "I instantly answered, "Yes" an we did proving "You never reach yoour limit."

     2) Do not let yoour honoir be impugned,

         Anecdote:

             Racing up several flights of stairs to sign in before being late from our Sunday leave, an upper classmen apparently yelled for us /me to stop. I never heard him. Later he filled an Honor Violation against us foring me to appear before the Honor Board. Very little trumps the seriousness of Honor Board's determination that you violated the code: expulsion within 24 hors. When my word that I never heard the upperclassmen yell was challenged, I remember feeling that I was slowly spinning in my chair I was so scared, I replied, " If you think I ma guilty, then I don't want to be part of this Academy." Nothing was said again.

     3) Strive for excellence when required.

          Anecdote:

              Perfectly shined shoes, neatly folded underwear in drawers, precisely memorized military quotes, etc. was demanded; failure gave you demerits & hours marching with rifle on your shoulder. 

I have the highest regard for USAFA and it grduates, but my lack of academic skills could not be sufficiently offset by my military enthusiasm. After 2 years I also realized I did not want a life of military regimentation and engineered my final exam failures and dropped out after 2^nd year.

Only much later would I fully appreciate the contradiction between my academic inadequacy and my rare & difficult-to-get appointment to USAFA. Only later would I realize how USAFA had firmed my confidence in my capabilities.

C. 20s: 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

insure nothing  of value & DELETE

Succinct Travel Bio Synopsis: 

Every summer as a young child my dislocated parents would drive 1500 mi from New York to Manitoba Canada or Nova Scotia, Canada to visit their parents. A long boring slog in an old car left no travel memories: foreign or domestic.

In 20’s occasional driving/camping trip to Western National Parks. Always great and … safe.

24 to 30 I worked obsessively for several national corporations & large LA advertising agencies.

At 28 I won Dating Game TV show all-expense & catered trip to exclusive Villa d'Este Hotel on Lake Como, Italy extending it 2 weeks to SIT visit other countries. A good adventure, yet few travel memories: Rome's Coliseum, 17^th C Austrian mansion & a cage full of blue bottle flies at Amersterdam Zoo, a aprk bench with a young man trying to convince a young woman how much he loved her as only the Italians can  

     Yet, I left early because I felt lonely without a romantic partner. (Nature & society conspire). My trip did not inspire foreign travel in me. 

At 35 started law school, then solo practiced a year, quit

At 39 ½, I quit my law practice AND  S Cal's beachfront 'la la land' lifestyle to move to Jackson Hole, WY  FOR a more manly lifestyle of horses, large log cabin construction, rental units & a garage door business I started.

Frequently, I chevy-suburban camped thru Western US & Canadian National Parks and innumeral historical sites. Finally, my life was appreciating nature and curoisty. I truly enjoyed this travel.

At 43, an ex-girlfriend jilted me,  just before our planned Vancouver World’s Fair camping road trip from Jackson Hole, WY. So, hurt,  I indignantly went alone, NEVER feeling loneliness again. Thereafter, I intentionaly happily traveled mostly 'solo independently everywhere.

At 49, I received my U of WY high school teaching certification teaching US History, Econ, geography, government & law at Jackson Hole High School. At 52 stopped all lecturing & testing -- replaced by self-directed projects with grades based on effort, imagination & creativity.

In my 50s I tested myself with: 1)  solo backpack trek over Alaska's Chilkoot Trail segueing directly to a 600mi solo kayak float to Dawson City, and 2) 2 weeks solo kayak paddle thru the watery labyrinth of Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

I wasn't afraid to foreign travel, I just never thought about it.

Did USA and Canada offer too many exciting travel opportunities for me yet to explore her? I could've easily ignored, arranged for someone to manage my properties for a month or two or decades later I realized I had enough money differently. I had known how to locate it.

AT 53, 25 years after Dating Game trip to Italy, I chaperoned several high school students on a packaged tour to Rome. Again few memories, none of the travel inspiration designed for my students. 

I was intensely passionate. I videoed every US & Canada adventure, but have neither photos or video from my student trip. Why not?

At 58 ,

Bored at 58, made SIT RV Van trip to Baha Mexico. Fantastic. Wish I had done earlier.

driven by increasing boredom & an invite to caravan with another teachr & her students, I determined that I MUST visit Mexico. She reneged on her offer & with usual male indignation, I realiezed I had to overcome my fear of Mexico and just go.

Mexico had always frightened me: bad police, bad food, bad bandits, bad water, bad gas. 

So,I spent THAT Spring Break traveling Baja Mexico visiting small towns, eating local food, stopped occasionally by friendly police, camping overnight on secluded beaches for early morning kayak paddles, no gas issues,and just 1 morning’s brief bout of Montezuma’s Revenge.  A great trip. I enjoyed it immensely & eliminated foolish fears. ( may not be so foolish today (9/18/23)

That brief 1 1/2 week immersion in the Mexican culture was thrilling: authentic food prepared by locals for locals in tiny authentic restaurants or at street-food vendors, erasing the language barrier with hand gestures & smiles, navigating its terrible dirt & potholed roads. I was hooked on the exotic, strange, new  & exciting foreign culture.  This was my foreign travel TRIGGER.

My high school principal graciously gave me the 2^nd semester off for the next 2 years.(On reflection, was he glad to get rid of me for awhile?)🥲😳.

The next 2 school years, solidified my foreign travel obssession.

     At 59,  

At 59, 2^nd semester’s 3 months RV van trip thru Mexico, Guatemala & Belize. Fantastic memories & video. [YTclip. ]

First year, for 3 months I drove my small RV van with kayak on top and mt. buke hangoing opff the rear from Douglas, AZ to Chihuahua, MEX, teh to the west coast and south to Guatemala, and thru to Belize and into Yucatan, Mexican and finally up eastern Mexican Coast to Texas and home. I explored the major Myan sites, kayaked Mexico's' vast coastal playas and Belize Rivers

      On my return home I sold my large log home, most of my accumulated 'junk' and bought a condo.

     At 60,  

At 60, 2^nd semester’s 3 month trip throughout New Zealand in small van. [YTclip. ] Fantastic memories & video.

Second year, began my ’true’ foreign trip traveling with 3 months throughout New Zealand in a small beat-to-hell van I bought from a hostel clerk.

      I returned home and retired from teaching to travel in earnest. I did so until cancer struck.  Hellava ride!!! 😁

   Obviously, at this 'creation' stage “…the tip of the tail is wagging this dog.’ 😀. 

      ................. I will now earnestly start filling in this shell-structure ......................

20s:

Wings:

• Unlimited Intellectual curiosity
• Unconstrained imagination & uninhibited creativity. 
• Few human-created prejudices (Mom’s heart beat).

Anchors:

• Knowledge base: Must yet learn a broad & deep knowledge & skills
• Experience base: very limited, but rapidly growing,  with which to compare & learn
• Family / friends / school / church impacts: may be good or bad.
• Destructive school system: unrecognized threat of public education’s memorization /testing damage which:

  1) crushes intellectual curiosity, 

  2) stifles imagination, 

  3) suppresses initiative & creativity, 

  4) wastes the true potential of most students, 

  5) undermines confidence & self worth

  6) often wastes student’s months/years better spent actually learning useful knowledge & gaining useful skills & experience. …

  7) foolishly isolates each subject’s content from all others destroying their natural interconnectedness. 

Questions:

Family:

1. Could I, a Pre-teen, have understood my mother’s dislike of me? ..or why? 

I recognized her dislike of me by 4 or 5 and that she & my brother were a cabal of my enemies, but I never understood ‘Why.’ 

Was she the cause of my academic failures?  Did her ridicule & lack of support leave me blind to other opportunities like singing, acting, sports, etc.?      I didn’t think so then, nor now.

I never guessed that her negativity undermined my confidence & self worth because I always seemed to excel outside school. 

Only as an adult did I look back and presume to guess at her low self-worth & its source; perhaps when she compared herself to my gentle father's high professional status & respect. 

Anecdote:

6 decades later, I asked her 95 year old sister, why my mother was as I described her. My aunt looked at me in disbelief —-  she had no idea what I was talking about.

Anecdote:

At 10 & 12, my father shipped me for summers to my mother’s parents on Manitoba, Canada’s plains to, as Grandma quipped, “…to get me away from my mother for at least the summers.” 

Most wonderful period of my early life. Loving, warm huge grandmother, taciturn Scotch (Edinburg direct )grandfather & wonderful manly role model, Uncle Bill.

Wonderful boyhood adventures: tent sleep in a tent with uncle’s dog, Pete, fishing, shooting rifles, big County Fair, boating & constantly in boyish trouble working in my grandfather’s then almost antique (70 years ago) small downtown grocery store. 

Yet, in spite of the solo 3 day railroad trip to Grandma’s … no specific desire to travel for travel’s sake.

School:

1. Could I have ‘understood’ my father’s counsel to ‘get good grades’ if I wanted to succeed? 

What did that even mean? Ironically, even in today’s world it may have less & less relevance?

2. Did I consider my school’s boredom, my classroom disruptions, my academic & familial failings? 

No, I simply accepted them as ‘me’ without assigning direct blame to anyone including myself although I felt a gnawing guilt, tho.

My solution was my imagination’s classroom day-dreams — my ‘secret’ refuge … besides, of course,   distracting others & generally screwing around.

3. Who did I blame for my academic failures & apparent behavioral issues?

No one. I simply accepted them as ‘me’ without assigning blame to anyone including my mother & brother? 

As a child I simply presumed that parents & school was ‘my world’, and never thought to question it. I knew I liked Eddy Wagner’s mom a lot before she, unfortunately, died early. She and I could talk for hours.

I never liked my mother or brother. Always suspect. Always my danger zone.

4. Should/could I have contemplated my future & self corrected? 

Perhaps, but as a fledgling human, I was not coping with the present, so how would I imagine the future let alone how to prepare, plan, or alter it.

The future was , I suspect, simply the next required thing: 

“Up in the mornin' and out to school

The teacher is teachin' the golden rule

American history and practical math

You studyin' hard and hopin' to pass. 

               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~     

Soon as three o'clock rolls around

You finally lay your burden down

Close up your books, get out of your seat

Down the halls and into the street”

     From Chuck Berry’s 1957 hit, “School Days.” 

             https://tinyurl.com/49hu3zhd

TRAVEL SPECIFIC Questions:

1. Does a child have an inherent desire for foreign travel?   Doubtful,

A child’s almost mental clean slate is frantically, with great wonder, trying to build its knowledge base, skills & experiences to match her growing awareness of the world she has been plopped into.

2. Can a child even grasp the concept of foreign travel?    Maybe

Perhaps in the same way tolerance is taught by erasing the significance of differences. EX: Americans eat hamburgers while Mexicans eat tacos; not good nor bad, just simply different.

3. Can parents facilitate travel desire? Perhaps

Exposing (NOT forcing upon) a child to travel-related media that compares/displays foreign cultures with our own e.g.: National Geographic Magazine's, Curiosity Stream’s documentaries, History Channel etc.

Critical to expose, not force or indoctrinate, a child too everything letting them become naturally interested, or NOT. 

Public education’s forced memorization & destructive testing system destroys intellectual curiosity, imagination & creativity.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

K-8:

Hated school. loved father, mother & brother my enimies; loved Boy Scouts, summer YMCA camp and church group. No thought of future. Future was the next obvious thing: school starts, homework, test, report card, Xmaxs vacation etc. 

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Consider the fundamental life questions I did or should have asked myself? How would you have answered thos same questions? What would or mighht you have done differently.  What do you think. you might do?

D) Then, step back from my BIO, look inside yourself, ask:

What are my life’s goals — specifically.

What, right now, in my life could I begin to change that would help achieve my goals which may or may not include travel?

 “A life already lived” that went the same direction you are now going.

) give others the perspective on the problem or issue by sharing my life's experiences with no soft foreign travel, my travel experiences which inspired no commitment to travel, and finally those factors which caused 180° turn around into a life of committed extensive world travel to him.

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More importantly, you can ask yourself what you would do or have done in the same circumstances I was in you can look at my life and say what do you think you would want to do differently and then you can finally most importantly ask yourself what will I do to achieve that a