Past, Present, Future

So one of the things I LOVE to do is answer questions. If I think that my answer will help or inspire others, then I love it even more. So I have found some questions today that I hope will allow me to answer in a way that will help or inspire at least one person today. I would love to know in the comments if I was successful!

Did you get into trouble when you were younger? What was the worst thing you did? Of course I did. What kid DOESN'T get into trouble? The worst thing that I did when I was under 18 was deciding to skip school and go steal stuff with a couple friends. We got caught. Cops were involved. My mother got involved. L The second worst thing I did was when I was 19 and that was being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Took a friend to the mall with me to turn in applications and she decided to start shoplifting. Now remember, I had gotten caught for that once already and wasn't dumb enough to do it again. Anyway, I had asked her to carry my bag at one point (I was into the whole messenger bag craze and it had gotten heavy). What I DIDN'T know was that she had been stealing things and putting them in my bag while she had it. Security at one of the stores saw her on the cameras and stopped us after we left the store. Since there was stolen merchandise in my bag, I went down with her. Since I couldn't prove that I hadn't been stealing anything, I got the same charge she did: Class A Misdemeanor for Criminal Conversion (which, oddly enough, is just a fancy way of saying borrowing WITH intent to return but WITHOUT the owner’s knowledge… Is anyone else as confused as I am?). This happened back in 2008. I am STILL paying the price for that mistake, 6 years later. L Moral of the story: Pick your friends wisely. You ARE guilty by association. And criminal records really DO cause you problems in the real world.

If you could do anything now, what would you do? Why? I wouldn't have a traditional 9 to 5 job, that’s for sure. If I had the financial stability to do anything I wanted, I would start a farm. Raise my own food: cattle for beef and milk, pigs for meat, chickens for meat and eggs, goats for milk, rabbits for meat and of course all of them for fertilizer. Raise horses to do the labor instead of machinery and also to generate a second income (as I would with all of the animals). Use the fertilizer on my garden so that I could grow my own vegetables and some fruits, as well as on the fields were I would grow feed for the animals as well as grains for the humans so that we could make our own bread and such. I would hope to have a wooded area so that we could supplement our diets with wild plants and wildlife, as well as a source of fresh water (such as a lake/pond/stream/etc) so that we could also include fish, turtle, and anything else we could find into our diets. I would live in a log cabin and do as much of our own labor as possible. No buying furniture from commercial stores, I’d learn to make it. No big shopping trips because I would learn how to sew my own clothes and necessary cloth items, we’d be growing our own food so no grocery trips, I would like to have some form of alternative energy and heat (solar/wind/water/etc) so no big expensive electronics. We wouldn't have a whole lot of money, but that’s okay. We wouldn't have to rely on an outside job, so my criminal record wouldn't be AS much of a problem. And we wouldn't have to worry about keeping up with the Jones'. Not that I have ever met those people, but from what I've heard, they have EVERYTHING! J I don’t need everything. I just need my family.

What are your dreams for your children? My dreams for my children are pretty simple, really. I hope that they will find happiness, be successful according to their own standards, and appreciate the value of a dollar as well as the value of family and hard work. I hope that they will appreciate the things that come easily and appreciate the things that come with more difficultly even more. I hope that they will fall in love (be it with someone of the same sex, different sex, same age range, significant age difference, doesn't matter as long as they are happy). I hope that they will excel at least at one thing. Hopefully, it is a good thing and not something illegal or harmful.