In high school, I had this teacher that I really looked up to, a hero. He taught history, made it really interesting and exciting. He was an ex army coloniel. He looked and acted like he had stepped right out of a movie. He exuded charisma. He told all of these stories of incredible things he'd done and seen. A truly larger than life personality. The students all hung on his every word. I was impressionable, I thought of the man as a mentor, and in my eyes he could do no wrong. All I wanted to do was impress this man.
When I was about to graduate high school I was in his office, he asked me what my plans were. I was a techie, geeky kid and I'd been programming computers since I was 9 and had a dream of having a job at NASA. I told him I wanted to work there. He laughed, and it wasn't really a nice laugh. It was a "you're being a fool" kind of laugh. He said "Eddie, you need to be more realistic, set your sights lower. My sons are top of their class at Virginia Tech, and even *THEY* probably won't be able to get a job at NASA. You need to spend a little less time with your head in the clouds." As you can imagine this was devastating.
Watching an episode of Big Bang Theory triggered an embarrassing flashback.
