Nepal – 2001

The children here are excited to go to school, dressed in their uniforms. As usual we have come to a school to visit with the students and listen and be led around as they proudly show off their school. It is disheartening to see our own children go off to school with little excitement for the days adventures that lie ahead. Why is that?

I don’t have the answers, but I think one of them is a sense of importance that these children feel about their futures and their importance to their own family. And let me remind you here, that all children in America will not go to college, should not go to college, and don’t need to go to college. There are plenty of fine jobs in construction, auto and aircraft repair, electronics and electrical repair, and so forth that do not require a college degree. Just be aware of and remember the source of the information that you and your children are given.

All my siblings and I went to college. None of our jobs required a college degree, and we have done very well financially. Thinking ahead in life is the best way to become successful. Sadly, most schools do not teach financial planning or long term planning of any type other than going to college. If you don’t know how to budget and plan, all the money in the world won’t save you from yourself. We see millionaires around us going broke all the time back at home. How can that be I wonder. I could live two lifetimes on a million dollars. Give it to me and I will show you. Sorry, I’m stepping down from my soap box now, ouch, that’s a big step.

The children of Nepal who live out in the country will become what ever they want. They may want to be farmers like their fathers and homemakers like their mothers. Or they might move to the big city and do something completely different. But we must remember that just because it is different from our way of thinking doesn’t mean that it is wrong or that something is broken. Their culture has been around far longer than ours.