Douglas Fletcher:  

I didn't graduate high school go to college and live a happy every-after- fairy-tale life. I've had big ups and downs, interruptions of almost every kind, my life path was beset with the greatest obstacles ,misfortune piled on misfortune and loss piled on loss how strong the deck was stacked, all my cards were marked in advance but God's plan always leads to victory. Greeting's classmates, Why my picture is not in the yearbook. Growing up I thought that people who went to school and put their noses to the grindstone were nerds, taking the easy way out. I know now that I was the one who took the easy way, that I didn't have the balls to stay in school and try. That was the tough road, which I didn't take, caught up in a dream, I was out of touch with the way the rest of the world was moving. The day's of reaping are bitter and hard. In spite of problems, hardships,and discouragement I am ebullient with accomplishment and a profound sense of satisfaction today. After being away from the classroom for forty + years and prevailing over a collection of lethal bad habits that would ensure my eternal poverty ( farewell to my self-destruction ) I took the GED test. Tested off the grid ! My test scores exceeds the GED passing score requirement and the scores of 80% of graduating seniors in America.(Whodda-thunk-it). Everyday is an adventure, all of them, can't let what happen yesterday stop us today, learn from the past, but don't be a prisoner to it, whatever the challenge is, however unattainable the goal may seem, never let anyone talk you out of believing in yourself, there may be obstacles but there are no limits a man defines himself not by the decisions of his past but through perseverance and passion to become something more ..................May God bless you all with His mighty wonders today and always...................You see things as they are and ask "Why?" I dream things that never were and ask "Why not?".................After unparalleled failure at my attempts at being a young junkie and lucrative drug dealing gangster ( unfortunately the law of diminishing returns operates here too ) recognizing this was not my calling, not being a dedicated felon and having no desire to spend any time in the penitentiary or to be hurled into eternity by somebody coming after me with a gun, (that would be a drastic change of zip-code) I began my true journey in life and what a journey of adventures and misadventures of staggering proportions it has been, twist and turns up's and down's never a straight line reaping a host of disasters with consistency that came with astonishing swiftness. WHEW !( I wish I had went to college). 1975 . After a series of substandard jobs without benefits and no real promise of economic independence and collecting redeemables prove to be unsuccessful, the profit margin was brutal, beyond bleak, well below zero. Dreaming big and sparing no efforts (life is either a daring adventure or nothing ) I bid farewell to my home town and took road trip by motorcar up the east coast visiting the nation's capital,New York city on to Connecticut enjoying the sights and sounds along the way, back down to Philadelphia where I spent the Bicentennial searching for...Expand for more