I'm learning something.

If you want to get a good look at human nature, enroll at a two year college.

See, what I am finding is that, at this two year college, students who actually have goals and are working towards them are in the minority. It's why articles like Brad's about the difference between winners and losers hit home for me. Because they hit so close to where I live.

In the time I've spent here, I've met some people I truly admire. These people knock my socks off with their ability to "show up". There are several working mothers working with sick kids, poor child care options, unsupportive spouses (or NO spouses), fixed incomes. Every single strike you could put against a person. And yet they show up. They bust their butts. And I know they're going somewhere, because they just WILL NOT be knocked down.

But they are in the minority. And on the male side of things, umm, I've yet to meet anyone who really impressed me. It would be honest, not arrogant, to say that I work circles around every guy I've had a class with.

But even that has had its rewards. I've gained the director of nursing and the Office Tech instructor, two instructors OUTSIDE my major, as personal references. I have made a positive impression on HR personnel from THREE Fortune 500 companies, and on the college where I will be completing my Bachelors. But that's another blog, we'll put that one on the shelf for now.

The vast majority of students I have encountered are here for various reasons. First you have the concurrent enrollment high school kids. These kids are pretty sharp, they're just...kids. They don't know what they want to do, and, frankly, that's not a huge deal at their age. But they are generally positive additions to the classrooms.

Then you get the "loser brat pack". This crab bucket assembly of losers, dropouts, and career ne'er do wells has a couple of its members struggling to escape their identity but finding themselves torn between their peer group, which is so powerful, and their desire to do something substantial. Right now the peer group has the upper hand, but I'd kind of like to track these guys over several years. It would be interesting to see how they turn out.

Then you have the earnest failure. These guys are the saddest story. They are one notable exception to the rules about winners and losers. These guys are honestly trying, they just don't have the ability. Like the one individual who found himself unable to simply collate papers for a class handout. They just come up short. And it pisses me off in light of the people I've seen that have more talent but not HALF the drive these guys have. In one of these cases, one of my contacts with a Fortune 500 company told me privately, "I heard him telling (the instructor) he was on the management path for (major fast food chain). He should pursue that, because that's probably his best option".

Then...there's the career victim. We have one guy here who is just a cert or two short of his MCSA, yet he refuses paid employment. He's been here more than five years on a two year degree, and only recently turned down a job paying nearly twice what he makes as workstudy. And several other equally unmotivated students who are here simply to get their friends and family off their butts about doing something with their lives. They're the group I find myself having the least patience for.

In each of these individuals, I have a pretty good idea who will succeed or who will fail, assuming nothing changes. I'm sure there will be a few surprises, but I doubt there will be many. Because success is a plan, and that is something some people see and some people, well, don't. Even the guy on the management fast track at major fast food chain realizes this. Which is why he's trying to be the best he can where he is.

I also stand outside every day and look across about 300 feet of open field. To the low income housing units. Where people collect their welfare and disability checks rather than make a short, simple move to improve their lives.