“And after the year? What then?” Vance asked through clenched teeth.
“Are you kidding me? You want to know more? Why?”
“I just want to know what all the options are. It won’t hurt me to know, will it?”
She tried to stare him down, but he wasn’t blinking. He had an air of confidence he lacked at their first meeting.
“Alright, I’ll tell you. It’ll never happen and you’ll never achieve it, but if by some miracle you did make it all the way, you will be offered a lifetime position with the company with a very lucrative salary. Is that what you wanted to know?” She said sarcastically.
“I see. Yes, thank you. How long do I have to think it over? When do you need to know?”
“I’d like an answer right now to be perfectly honest, but I’m obligated to give you twenty-four hours to consider and weigh your options. If you’re not prepared to sign right now, I’ll meet you back here at this same time tomorrow. Don’t be late.” With that she picked up her things and proceeded to return to her hotel room.
Vance was awhirl with everything he’d just been told. He needed advice. And he knew the best source of good advice for his life, so he returned home.
His parents sat on the couch opposite him as he explained the two options to the best of his ability. Should he take the easy way? Go get a bachelor’s degree from Harvard and start his life in any direction he wanted to go? That was the simplest solution.
But then again, there was something tantalizing about the second one. Although he’d definitely have to work his ass off like never before, it could be done. As a matter of fact, it HAD been done before, by his sponsor. And after a one year internship, a lifetime occupation with a great salary at a multi-billion dollar financial firm? But it was fraught with risk. Slip on one grade, one single failure and he’d owe more than he could ever repay in his lifetime.
“What should I do dad? I trust your judgement better than my own. I’ll follow your suggestion, whatever it is. What do you think?”
Carl was pensive for several seconds before responding. “Son, it all boils down to what YOU want. Either way, your mother and I will always be exceptionally proud of you. You call option one the easy way. I can’t imagine either way being easy. A degree from Harvard has to be earned; they’re not just given out like candy. What I THINK you’re asking is should you take the SAFE way, and I’ll respond to THAT question with two observations.”
He continued, “I saw a boy turn into a fine young man and turn his life around on a dime simply because he WANTED it. You proved you could do the work. You accepted the challenge and reached the goal with no compromise, no cheating, no shortcuts and we couldn’t be prouder. Even if you don’t have that confidence in yourself, your mother and I both KNOW you can achieve anything you set your mind to doing. So CAN you do it? Hell yes. But WILL you?”
He went on, “That’s what you’re really asking me now isn’t it? I’ll answer that with my second observation. I saw you playing football in that junior high school game against the Bulldogs. You remember the one. Your team was behind by sixteen points, it was the last seconds of the game and you were on defense. There was no way in hell your team could ever win that game. But what did you do? I’ll tell you what you did! You ran after the quarterback like a madman. You bounced three huge linemen off of you just to get at him, and get at him you did. You hit him so hard he didn’t get up for five minutes, but when he went down, he fumbled the ball. The game could have ended right then. It SHOULD have ended. But no, you were having none of it. You picked up that ball and ran like a banshee out of hell. You were on fire as you tore across that field. Every man on the opposing team was after you, except for the quarterback. I saw you run for forty-five yards when you were hit by your first tackler, you kept going, the second one joined the first and hung on, but you kept going, the third, fourth and fifth man piled onto you as you trudged on. Hell, no one could even see you. All we could see was this pile of five heavy football players moving slowly toward the goal line. I couldn’t see you, but I damn sure could hear you. You were yelling and groaning at the top of your lungs. You were unstoppable; I’d never seen anything like it before in my life. You drug those five men across that line and collapsed. When they pulled everyone off of you, the referee determined that you still held that ball and scored a touchdown.”
He grew silent for a moment letting the memory of that event sink in. “Your team lost the game that day, but you were a hero. What you did made the rounds on several different TV sports shows. You could have just let the game die right then and there, but you didn’t. You have fight and determination inside you that comes from I don’t know where. Son, what I’m saying is that you’re not a quitter. If you want something bad enough, you go after it, no matter what. So that is why I asked you my first question, what do you truly WANT?”
Vance suddenly had a huge smile on his face as he rose to his feet. Meeting his dad they clutched and pounded each other’s backs. “You always know what to say, dad. And you’re right. That’s what it all boils down to. Thanks.”
The next day, Vance was prompt in meeting up again with the blonde-headed bitch. “I may come to regret my decision as I’m sure you will point out to me, but I have decided to go with option two. Ending up with a Master’s degree in lieu of a bachelor’s in just four years coupled with the opportunity to work for, what I presume to be, a very prestigious company makes me inclined to follow that path. So how do we do this?”
She scowled at him as if he had seriously insulted her. “I sure hope you know what you’re doing. It’s your funeral. But you can’t say that I didn’t warn you. Not if, but when you fail, and I know you will, you can’t say that you weren’t advised against it. But if you insist on following this charade of yours, know that it is at your own peril.”
“You always know how to cheer me up. So do I need to sign anything?”
She supplied over a dozen documents requiring his signature. He walked with her to the hotel guest office facility where she made copies of all the pertinent documentation including the penalty clauses should he fail to succeed.
“One more question if I may.” He posited. “Now that I’ve signed everything and have chosen the arduous path, can you now tell me the name of the financial enterprise that I would be interning for and possibly work for, for all of my career?”
“Well aren’t you the inquisitive one? That information is on a need to know basis and until you prove your worthiness to the company by meeting the challenges you will face at Harvard; that information would be of little value to you. If you make it to that point, it will be revealed at that time. Now if you will excuse me, I have a plane to catch. I don’t want to spend any more time than necessary in this little Podunk town.