Incidentally, speaking of high school mathematics teachers, I've seen Elbert Frazier several times at Kroger fairly recently. He appears to remember me, and is always all smiles when he sees me, and I grin in reply. It's almost like he isn't embarrassed at all that one of his former students is working at the grocery store at age 50. And I've also seen Bettye [I think that's the way she spells it] Gibson there a few times. She was my homeroom teacher and english teacher in 8th grade at Annie Camp, at least I think it was 8th grade. Anyway, I was mullygrubbing to her about the whole grocery store lawyer thing, and she was very quick to tell me to quit that nonsense because if I'm happy, then that's all that matters.
You know, I wouldn't be happy if i had not pursued my education to its logical conclusion, but the education is not determinative of my destiny. And the more I think about it and consider my situation, the more I realize that having a good job with lots of room to increase my compensation, and good people to work with, and plenty of people to help, all while providing a legitimate service that people want and need for a reasonable cost, is not a bad place to be at all. And the education, well, that's just the icing on the cake. I wouldn't be happy if I didn't know SOMETHING to that degree. But that doesn't mean that I have to be an a$$hole lawyer and take advantage of people at their most vulnerable moments.