Today I was on the plane from Dallas/Ft. Worth to Jacksonville, and all I noticed about the person sitting beside me was that he was an older gentleman. I was hoping not to have to talk to him; the first question after I say I'm stationed in San Diego always leads to the whole speech on me and my Marine Corps career. And I just don't like talking about it sometimes.
After a while of sitting in silence, though, this gentleman asked if I was just visiting J-ville, and I said yes, and we ended up in the me and the military discussion. This was different, though; he implied that I was too smart to be in the Marine Corps, and wanted to know what I was going to do after I got out. I told him I was going to go back to school. He told me I probably had an IQ of 130 or 140... I answered, surprised, that he was right. He asked me if I'd been to college already, and I said yes, and he asked me how I'd done then. I said not too well, and that I had grown up a lot since then.
He told me about his time in the Air Force when I asked what he did, and then described his career as the CEO of two different companies, and his career as a venture capitalist today. I was amazed; this guy was smart. I like meeting smart people in random places. He has three degrees from Purdue, and recently started their College of Bioengineering, I think he said. The Weldon College of Bioengineering, right next to a school named for a classmate of his: the Armstrong College of Aerospace Science, or something. The guy went to school with Neil Armstrong. Neil Armstrong was my hero until I was about sixteen.
It was kind of a surreal experience.
Anyway, he ended our conversation by giving me his card and telling me that if, in the course of my search for a school, I was ever interested in attending Purdue, to give him a shout.
Dude. He only started talking to me because I was reading Atlas Shrugged.
little changes
13 years ago
3 comments:
You never know who you are gong to meet on a plane or anywhere. I am come to realize that this world is a small one and you never know who you are going to meet where.
Have fun back home on leave.
Enjoy your leave, Lea.
I as alive in 1969 to watch Armstrong and company set foot on the moon.
I have wanted to be an astronaut ever since. I had to let go some years ago of realizing that dream in reality, but I think there are many ways to be explorers and pioneers and visionaries in the same way those astronauts were. I've even read an essay recently that compared MLK's work to being an astronaut for the human race.
I know you'll soar in whatever you pursue.
Well...I finally get to leave a comment on your blog. And it's cause I'm at your house. It seems kind of pointless since you're downstairs sleeping and all I have to do to talk to you is wake you up. But I don't really feel like getting punched in the face. Anyway...glad you're home. Your dog is under the computer desk...she smells like a skunk. And something else I won't mention.
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