All You Need is a Plan

I was always a sucker for the “you can be anything you want” slogan, but I knew from a very young age that there had to be more to it. After all, everyone wants to be a doctor or a lawyer when they’re 5, but only a few actually become one. At 14 I decided I wanted to be a model, I knew it was a career I could start right away, but I also knew I couldn’t just wish it into reality. So I sat on my computer and looked up how to become a model. Easy right? Not quite, but I singled out what seemed to make the most sense and started doing everything I could to make it happen.

Today, years later I am so grateful to be exactly where I am. Sometimes I feel like I’m never satisfied, but when I stop to look around me, I truly appreciate everything I’ve accomplished. I remember when I was 17, I landed this awesome job as a waitress in South Beach, right on Ocean Drive. That whole year I drove back and forth from Hialeah everyday for work and for castings, to this seemingly different world. It wasn’t so much the glitzy nightlife that made it different. It was the fact that on a daily basis I was meeting people from all around the world with so many different cultures. Maybe that doesn’t seem like such a big deal, but for someone who’d never gone anywhere and lived in the same city all their life, it was as if all of a sudden, my world became that much bigger.

I don’t quite know how to explain it. I had this primitive feeling that “If these people could come here to visit, then I can go there to visit.” Kinda silly, I know, but it was really that simple. The fact that I was a poor girl from the projects in Hialeah had nothing to do with anything. The dreams I had as a child were suddenly possible again. I knew I just needed to follow my plan.

I remember coming over the causeway looking out into the water and saying, one day I’ll live here. I did what I set out to do and now I’m here…I’ve traveled all around the world. I made it real. Somehow someway I wrote my own story, consciously, decisively, fearlessly.

• 
  Captain Jack October 9, 2011 at 8:14 PM

  I have had a similar experience. I had a hard time deciding what one thing to do when I grow up. I wanted to do everything. My passion was to become a computer programmer. I used to stay late in school to work on my programs when the computers were freed up for use. I would get home 2 -3 hours later and my reward was getting grounded. My step mother would say, “Computers are just toys!” “You’ll amount to nothing if you keep playing on those damn things!” she said. I had no support, but since I was grounded I kept staying late. Later on I was doing college level programming in high school. Never really thought much about it until now. I got poor grades in school, Cs & Ds mostly, yet I was doing college level computer programming.
  The Army said, we have computers. I said where do I sign! Then the Navy said we have better computers! So signed up with them. That was a big mistake of my life. I didn’t get to program for the civilians did all that. I found a job of installing the hardware, but that’s about it. If something broke, I would ship it back and they would send the new part or software. Grrrr!!! I did get to see the whole world thought. I went around one and a half times. I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. In fact I hope to do it again.
  After the Navy, I went back to college and studied computer programming, engineering, physics, and small business entrepreneurship. I discovered this was a waste of my time that I could learn the same things just by going to the local library and reading books. So I quit college for the time being (when back later to attend mini classes) and started to work at a hobby store. I think I spent 15 years working in marketing and retail sales. I was averaging $250,000 every 2 years in sales but didn’t get hardly a dime for it. I said screw this and decided to get my captains license and never looked back.
  I think I’ve gone full circle. Starting out in boating (Navy) then ended up as a captain in the merchant marines. (Oh and I’m still using computers on a daily basises.) I used to be the grunt of those big Navy ships (battleship) and now I’m a captain of a much smaller ship. I’m like wow! I’ve made it! I don’t know what but here I am. People look at me much different than when I was a grunt. So how did I get here? I made many plans and just push forward regardless what anyone told me to do. As it turned out computers are not just toys but an important part of our lifes. What you learn in the past might help you in the future. Never know you might end up doing what you used to do.
  Chaise, Your right about following a plan. You just have to make one and push forward regardless what people say or do to you. Yes it’s a good feeling to look back and say, yes this was possible and I did it. Hopefully people will learn some of the lessons we learned and they too will see their dreams come to life. All it takes is a plan………
  Captain Jack

  Reply
• 
  Captain Jack October 9, 2011 at 8:14 PM

  Darn! I can’t edit my comment

  Reply