I CHOSE to be more than pretty good

Pretty Good

by Charles Osgood from the Osgood File, 1986
There once was a pretty good student 

Who sat in a pretty good class 

And was taught by a pretty good teacher 

Who always let pretty good pass. 

He wasn’t terrific at reading, 

He wasn’t a whiz-bang at math, 

But for him, education was leading 

Straight down a pretty good path. 

He didn’t find school too exciting, 

But he wanted to do pretty well, 

And he did have some trouble with writing 

Since nobody taught him to spell. 

When doing arithmetic problems, 

Pretty good was regarded as fine. 

5+5 needn’t always add up to be 10;

A pretty good answer was 9. 

The pretty good class that he sat in 

Was part of a pretty good school, 

And the student was not an exception: 

On the contrary, he was the rule.

The pretty good school that he went to 

Was there in a pretty good town, 

And nobody there seemed to notice 

He could not tell a verb from a noun. 

The pretty good student in fact was 

Part of a pretty good mob. 

And the first time he knew what he lacked was 

When he looked for a pretty good job. 

It was then, when he sought a position, 

He discovered that life could be tough, 

And he soon had a sneaking suspicion 

Pretty good might not be good enough. 

The pretty good town in our story 

Was part of a pretty good state 

Which had pretty good aspirations 

And prayed for a pretty good fate. 

There once was a pretty good nation 

Pretty proud of the greatness it had, 

Which learned much too late, 

If you want to be great, 

Pretty good is, in fact, pretty bad.

So... the purpose to this post. For my senior highschool yearbook I was interviewed and asked why I wanted to be in the top 20 of my class. I actually did not remember this or what my response was until Matt read it to me a week ago.

 "I choose to be in the top 20 because what I want to achieve can only come from a lot of work. There is no easy path." 

I wish I could say that now. I wish I knew exactly what it is I want and cared enough to give everything I have to make it happen. I wish I was brave enough and confident enough and trusting to the point that even in my exhausted state I would be a bit more comfortable with the choices I am making. 

Don't get me wrong-- I'm not saying I am depressed and have screwed up. There's a lot in my life that I'm proud of myself for accomplishing. There's a lot that I still work hard for and am motivated to achieve. 

I just wish I would quit messing around with the things I love so much that don't matter and have the courage and motivation to be the person I want to be. 

I'm so sick of people wanting to be things but not ever becoming those things. 

I'm not that kind of person.