So today I received the culmination of almost 20years of work.  Sounds impressive eh?  It's actually 20 years of procrastination and about 3 or 4 years of actual work.  Either way I did it.  I finally finished my bachelors degree.  It's weird really, because I was done with school on the 23rd of December, but I refused to call it good until I received that piece of paper.  The certificate that, once earned no one can take away from you.  Certifications expire.  A degree is a lifetime achievement that will always remain. This song comes to mind when people question me about finishing school:

Blind Melon, Change
Writer: SMITH, ROBYN / MINES, MARCIA / JONES, BRIAN

I don't feel the suns comin' out today
its staying in, its gonna find another way.
As I sit here in this misery, I don't
think I'll ever see the sun from here.

And oh as I fade away,
they'll all look at me and say, and they'll say,
Hey look at him! I'll never live that way.
But that's okay
they're just afraid to change.

When you feel your life ain't worth living
you've got to stand up and
take a look around you then a look way up to the sky.
And when your deepest thoughts are broken,
keep on dreaming boy, cause when you stop dreamin' it's time to die.

And as we all play parts of tomorrow,
some ways will work and other ways we'll play.
But I know we all can't stay here forever,
so I want to write my words on the face of today.
and then they'll paint it

And oh as I fade away,
they'll all look at me and they'll say,
Hey look at him and where he is these days.
When life is hard, you have to change.

I think for me what this song says is two fold.  In the beginning I think they are saying life sucks.  But then the idea is to turn yourself around and find a different perspective.  Keep dreaming.  Because sometimes the things we do aren't important for the moment, but they all build up and have a dramatic effect on the future.

I can remember in particular a philosophical debate I had with a classmate regarding our individual importance in the grand scheme.  We were discussing the relevance of the individual overall, and I think the overarching theme was each individual has a key role and what is the meaning of life...or something very profound like that ;-)  However my thought on the topic was, maybe my purpose is to raise some children who will in turn raise some children who may be scientists that cure some disease.  The point being, what I do now may not be this life changing thing today or even tomorrow, but there is a possibility that it will have a rather dramatic effect on the future.

I think what is important to take away from this rambling, check off your lists whatever it is you want to do in life.  If you want to fly in a hot air balloon, do it.  If you want to jump out of Airplanes, do it.  The feeling you get afterwords, of that ability to say, "fuck yeah that shit was cool and I did it" that feeling can be passed to your children. 

Impress upon them that sense of accomplishment.  And if all goes well, they will probably kick your ass in accomplishing their goals.  They will walk on "the moon...and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."