After I read this today, I thought... I've done the opposite. Being an only child I have a hard-core responsibility to my parents and family. I passed up on music scholarships away from home to stay here to play piano for my father’s church and to make sure things ran smoothly. In my career I'm sure that if I moved to LA or NY I would have achieved goals that are slightly out of my reach here in Houston, but I guess probably ripping up my family in the interim. All in all, if I have sacrificed a good portion of my life to make sure that all remains well with me and my loved ones, I'm OK with it...finally. What have you sacrificed?
I've talked with you about that before, AB. I have so much respect for you because of that. Our culture says, "go get yours," no matter what. There are things we should definitely value more than that. I can't say enough about how much I respect you for that decision. You're freaking awesome and your kids, wife and parents will never, ever doubt that.
I've talked with you about that before, A-Train. I have so much respect for you because of that. Our culture says, "go get yours," no matter what. There are things we should definitely value more than that. I can't say enough about how much I respect you for that decision. You're freaking awesome and your kids, wife and parents will never, ever doubt that.
It's strange talking about one's own sacrifices. Something that seems like a big deal to people I tell about it is that my wife and I took in a younger brother a couple months after we got married. He stayed with us several months while he tried to establish himself in the world. Then, we did it again for another brother, who lived with us during his senior year in high school (plus 2 summers). Now (with a new child to boot), the first brother is back, and we're trying it again. It's a sacrifice of time and money and comfort and privacy. But, I've never really resented it or wished I didn't have to do it.
On a related note, I bought a protective cup for the first time ever this weekend for sparring class and at the end of the day was disappointed that I did not get hit or kicked in the groin. Why should I stuff some discomforting plastic in my pants and not even get hit?
Won't go into detail...unless someone buys my lunch at California Pizza Kitchen! But, yeah...my career choices have been overwhelmingly influenced by my feelings for priorities regarding family. And there has definitely been some sacrifice there.
Oh, for a second there I thought you were going to tell us that you're living on a caribbean island with a beautiful woman and all the money you could ever need...
well, of course there's that! i mean...geez. but sometimes it's a real pain in the ass because she asks me to put suntan lotion on her...and it's like, "damn, woman...can't you do that yourself??" for real...i have no complaints. my "sacrifices" are pretty small in the scheme of things. my wife has sacrificed more, probably...and she still has to live with ME!
on the flip side if you would have followed another path you would have "sacrificed" you family. Everyone has made a choice to sacrifice something: 1) Move to LA and pursue money -- sacrifice family 2) Stay in area for family -- sacrifice things It's all about priorities. I've never made a move that was about money. I quit one job because they were pressuring me to quit a special needs camp I helped run for a week in the summer. I found another,more understanding job, with slightly less pay. I purposely never took any job offers to go into consulting because of all the travel. I have vowed (and so far kept the vow) to never let work be the focus of my life.
1) My dad head a heart attack back in 1987 - the year before I was to go to college. I gave up on going to an Ivy League school (Brown or Cornell) to stay close to home (UH)... just in case. I was almost assured of getting into Cornell. I ended up dropping out of college anyway to get on the Internet/Y2K bandwagon. No regrets though, as it's worked out perfectly. BTW AB, I'm an only child, too - I know where you're coming from with regards to family. 2) I sacrificed most of my 20's to work my butt off so I can retire early. Never really partied or did any of the stuff most 20-to-30 year olds do. Worked several 90-100 hour weeks at a couple of jobs. I still work 70 hour weeks regularly (need to stop that). Again, no regrets - it's worked out perfectly. Sometimes a sacrifice you make early in life turns out to not be much of a sacrifice at all...
Honestly, none without b****ing. I've been lucky enough in my life that I've never really had to sacrifice too much. I won't count sacrificing buying CDs, going out, etc. to get out of debt and save up money for my future because it's my fault I'm there in the first place. I would like to point out the sacrifice my parents made for me my senior year in high school. After living my entire life in Katy and going to each Katy school (one of 15 other people to do that), my Dad had a sudden change in jobs. My junior year was spent rotating between California, Katy and Chicago. All on the promise that I could stay in Katy my senior year with friends and family (who all had promised a sacrifice on their own). Unfortunately, the family that was still here didn't realize how big a sacrifice that was with a new baby, so instead of moving back to Chicago to finish high school, my Mom moved back down for the last six months of my senior year so I could graduate with my friends. I'll never forget that sacrifice.
I sacrificed watching the first 3 1/2 quarters of Game 2 of the 1997 Western Conference Finals, so I could go to my high school sports banquet to collect a plaque for being a crappy golfer (who never shot under 120 in a tournament that year) who made the traveling team by default because no one else tried out. Then I come home to find out the Rockets are down 15 mid-way through the 4th quarter asking myself "what the heck is going on with this team, why are we losing to the Jazz like this??", only to find out by watching the game tape afterward that Kevin Willis was the reason for the Rockets sucking that game with his outrageously ineffective play. Ok, I got off the topic with the Willis blast, but I haven't had a Willis meltdown in months. I couldn't help myself.
JBII, that reminded me of one. Missing game 4 of the WCF in 1995 to freaking graduate from high school. Luckily, my parents had a radio with them and would relay the score to me every five minutes or so. Another wonderful sacrifice by my family.
I sacrificed watching game 3 of the 1994 Knicks/Rockets NBA Finals.... ....so my band could appear on a television show. We spent that weekend filming 5 episodes of a syndicated late night show in which we were the "house band". Since I was the "bandleader", I was wearing an earpiece, and the producer kept feeding me the score as the game was going on. Fortunately, he told me about Sam Cassell's game winning shot while we were off camera, so nobody saw me lifting my arms and saying "yesssssssssss"!
