craigmcn

A quick shout out to Wublub for passing exam 1 in his CSC course! Good on ya!

I’m hoping you guys can help me with something that’s on my mind. You provided me with all kinds of insight [last year] when I made some comments about bullying, so I hope you can do likewise in this case…

One of the women I work with has a 17-year-old son who’s a big pain in the ass. He has no ambition to do anything at all with his life. Right now he smokes dope and works at Blockbuster, while skipping more than half his classes at school. Surprisingly enough, he’s not doing all that well in school. Working at Blockbuster gets him free rentals, but does he rent movies for the family? Of course not. He rents the video games, that then (and I can’t imagine how) get returned late, which incur late fees (again, I don’t know how this is possible). He’s not really into sports, other than lacrosse, at which he is spectacular (and is pretty much the only source of pride for his mother). He figures somehow that he’ll smoke dope, work at Blockbuster, and play professional lacrosse. (Which doesn’t pay all that well, all the guys on the Toronto Rock all have day jobs.)

So, my question to you is: What do you do with this guy? He’s not thinking about a realistic future, and really doesn’t see a problem. What do you tell him? How do you get it into his head that he needs to focus on something real?

I wouldn’t go so far a to say I’m a success, but I did okay in school. I went to university, and then I got a job. And I’ve been able to pay my bills, work in different industries, move around the country … It’s been pretty comfortable. I can’t imagine working at Blockbuster will get you too far, when you spend all your cash on dope… So help me out … What do you guys think?