The way I see it...

Famous in a Small Town
It's hard to be famous. I'm not talking movie star or rock star famous. I'm talking about living in a small town and being in the public eye. City council members. The mayor. Teachers. Principals. Newspaper editor. None of it is easy.

My experience with this started at a very early age. My parents were both varsity coaches. Can you imagine? For the most part, it was fine and I have good memories of being at the gym or on the softball diamond. However, as I got older, there were times when it did (for lack of a better word) suck.

Fast forward to me in high school and my dad going from a teacher to the high school principal. Nothing like having mean teenagers take out crap on you. My thought was always, my dad wasn't the one that broke the rules, you were, he's just here to enforce them.

Maybe it was just meant to be that I have the job that I do, I don't know. Even though I realize that everyone is entitled to their opinion, sometimes it just gets downright annoying. And frustrating.

While you may disagree with a story I write, a referee's call at a basketball game, or a principal's punishment, you still need to realize one thing: people don't mess up things or do things to make people mad on purpose. 99% of the people in the world aren't mean-spirited, they try to do what they think it best.

Would I get to go out to a farm and tell a farmer how to do their job? What if I headed over to the bank and told them how to run the bank? The thought of that seems a little ridiculous, doesn't it? And yet, there are people who think they are experts everywhere for the jobs that I have mentioned in this article. If those people think they are so good at it, why don't they become a coach, prinicipal, ref, or newspaper editor? There is a lot more to these jobs than you think there is.

You know what's funny? In all of my almost-30 years, I have never, ever met anyone that's perfect. I know I'm far from it. I think people tend to get on their high-horses and forget that simple fact...nobody is perfect. Another thing I think they forget is that the people they are ragging on and complaining about are people too. People with families (just like them) and feelings (just like them). I wish people would remember that the next time they go and run their mouth.

All I'm asking is this. The next time you feel the need to say something negative about somebody and the job their doing, put yourself in their shoes before you do so, it might just make you rethink what you were about to say, but that's just the way I see it.