Hand-outs or Hand-ups

"Every handout has a price and that price is a loss of freedom. We must preserve our talents of self-sufficiency, our ability to create things for ourselves, and our love of independence." - Cameron C. Taylor

I remember once when I was 16 that I wanted a brand new car. Going to one of the wealthier schools in the area, many class mates got what they wanted for a car, I didn't. I believe if I got the brand new 1999 Toyota Celica that I wanted, I would have broke my parents. That wasn't it though, my Dad didn't want to give me a hand-out. I remember leaving a restaurant with him, looking at that car in the parking lot and him saying - "Go out, get a job, work for it, and that car will be yours." I pretty much hated that statement. As we drove away all I could dream about was sitting behind that car and driving it like I would a spaceship. The summer right before my Junior year I went out and got a job at the Corpus Christi Airport. I would wake up at 5 in the morning and go wash cars all day at the car rental business named "Avis." 5am till 6pm, 6 days a week during the summer. As my friends went on vacations, as they had fun nights together, as they had girlfriends; I worked. By the end of the summer I had saved about 3 thousand dollars. Not enough for a brand new car. Going to my next choice, I started to search the classifieds. One by one, my selection was narrowed and diminished. Right before my Jr. year started and as I quit that summer job, I came across an old 1985 black Toyota Celica. It had a sunroof and a cd player with somewhat of a stereo system. The car needed work, the gears didn't shift too well, and the oil burned smoke if I went faster than 65 mph. Not what I wanted to have to impress the girls with at school. Since I worked for it though, it was mine, all mine, "My Car!" I drove that sucker into the ground. About a year later I would have the biggest life threatening car wreck - as I plowed into some trees - that I would ever have. I remember looking at it as it was a total destruction telling myself - "That was MY car. The first thing I OWNED outright." My Dad did have the money I believe, he could have helped me get something nicer, he could have given in and gave me what I wanted; but he taught me a lesson. He gave me a hand up, rather than a hand out. Now I find myself in almost the same situation in life, but this time the stakes are much greater. I worked and bought my own condo, a house, a motorcycle, a truck, a car, and some other things that I have lost, rented out, or wrecked since then. When I down right owned something, the value of it - I can't explain, is immeasurable. I owned these things, and those that I used debt to buy, are down right killing me. If I only could remember that lesson before I put myself in this mess would I be that much closer to my dreams. How impatient I was to get something I didn't work for, something that I couldn't wait to have. I have had a loss of freedom these last couple years, but it's my own fault. I will work my way out of it, I just have to get back to what lessons my Dad taught me when I was younger. I believe if he hadn't have taught me that lesson then, the situation I'm in now would be that much greater. I know what I need to do to succeed. How many of us are looking for hand outs rather than hand ups...Thanks Dad, I won't give hand outs to people anymore and I won't be looking for someone to give me one neither. It's all about giving people "hand-ups" from now on.