INDUSTRIA

Diligence

Wikipedia defines Diligence (in the virtue sense) as:

A zealous and careful nature in one's actions and work. Decisive work ethic. Steadfastness in belief. Fortitude and the capability of not giving up. Budgeting one's time; monitoring one's own activities to guard against laziness. Upholding one’s convictions at all times, especially when no one else is watching.

That is partially why I start this series off with a picture of a college graduation. BUT! Not just any graduation… my friend David’s graduation. In the same amount of time that it took me to get one AA degree, he earned two Bachelor’s degrees. Now, to be honest… we do not see eye to eye on things. Sometimes I feel a bit like Clint Eastwood when I listen to Pastor Dave talk, to illustrate what I mean:




Despite that, I am happy for him, I really am. He is doing what he wants to do. In high school, David had the heaviest letterman jacket in our year, if not the school. Why so heavy? Well, having that many medals and pins will weigh you down (in my defense and for the record, Scouting usually only gives away patches that do not go on a letterman jacket). David was in “Bible Quiz” which was… the simple way of explaining it (which will make me a target to those who where in it) is to say that it was basically a sport for the nerds. It was a Bible based game show between various “christian” schools. David did not need a sport for nerds though, why? Because he was VCA’s Ironman. He is the only guy I know who did all three sport seasons in all four years of High School. He always maintained a high GPA, and one of his main problems when he spoke in Chapel was going to in-depth with a topic for the audience’s attention span.

As the definition states, David has a decisive work ethic and is very steadfast in his beliefs. As far as I know, he upholds his convictions at all times. While he was still attending Ozark Christian College, he had an agreement not to drink ANY alcohol (anyone catch why I didn’t go to OCC?). So when David came home from school, we would offer him wine with dinner, or a beer maybe, to which he would always deny. Even when he went to China and was on the OTHER side of the Pacific Ocean, he still would not drink ANY of the beer that Jason and Andrew tried to give him. Why? Because he had an agreement with the school. It did not matter that he was on the other side of the country in a different state, or even on the other side of an ocean in a different country… he held true to his agreement.

David, as studious as he is, and as ethically and morally sound as he is, in all honesty, would not be where he is without charity and loans. One of my other best friends and his other best friend are great examples of how not to be in that situation.


Val not only got a regular consistent job that gave out a W-2 before me, he moved from Santa Maria first, and is now working on buying a house. I haven’t had a consistent W-2 job in a couple years. I just moved from Santa Maria (temporarily) and of course… I am charitably living in a camper with only the possessions that I could fit in a sea bag. Val on the other hand, much tighter with money. Val actually helped pay for some of his own VCA tuition and was solely responsible for his college AND University tuition. Val not only knows how to budget his money, he knows how to budget his time and energy towards his work ethic. He might get it from our friend Andrew (Val’s Andrew, not my Andrew).

Andrew is quite an entrepreneur. Being a business major, I talk about dying as one of those guys who has to decide which business to leave in whose hands, Andrew actually IS on the road to becoming that. He already owns a house and has a very successful business converting cars to run off bio-diesel (if you’re interested in details on this, email me and I’ll get you in touch). Diligence

Someone in my life who has done all the definitions of diligence would be my older sister. “A zealous and careful nature in one’s actions and work. Decisive work ethic.” Besides her being an A student… “Fortitude and the capability of not giving up. Budgeting one’s time; monitoring one’s own activities to guard against laziness. This is a nursing school student we’re talking about… and Jess, you know all that that entails. Besides the fact that I’m a straight guy, I could NEVER be a nurse based upon all the stuff my sister has had to go through. I got to have Thanksgiving with her and her fellow students and their husbands and hear the stories from their classes. I was just like… good God man… I mean… I draw the line at learning all the bones in the body (which, I already forgot since it’s been more than a week since my anthropology final). Now I read some of her friends status posts about “thank God I have 5 minutes of sleep”. Whatever life has thrown at my sister… she has used her uber-awesome Latina powers of stubbornness to basically beat the shit out of it into submission. Living up to my Father’s extremist standards, being an “A” student as well as a varsity volleyballer, defending our country as a Soldier, and of course dealing with loss and absence of loved ones… I am proud to share blood with this woman. When I look at her, I see a female version of what I could achieve if I put my mind to it. When I see women like her, to me it is not at all surprising that it is the lioness who hunts down the prey.

If I had half of the Diligence of these four, I would have much more money, more “A’s” on my transcripts, and I dare say would be nearing graduation from flight school at Pensacola after having graduated Annapolis (with honors) instead of working myself to death on the other side of the globe just to meet the minimum standards.


There is always of course… Hope…


“When it is a question of God’s almighty Spirit, never say ‘I can’t’”
-Andrew Carnegie