Great -changing- Expectations; taking stock

Remember the big plans? Each in turn. The promising bright future. Become a photographer. Have a Navy career. Get married. Have a dozen children. Become a high school teacher of sociology. Build a house.  Become a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) consultant. Become an essayist. Live to be 104. Great expectations. There were big plans, big ideas. And then, you know the next line; along came life. And now Parkinson's Disease. Even great expectations change. These and more were some of my expectations most of which I've had the good fortune to experience to some level. It's important to note that I've had the good fortune to experience most of these expectations "to some level".  

Whenever I sit to write I am consciously aware that I am acting as a person with a preference for the personality type of INTP, (Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving) and, that I am a person with Parkinson's Disease (PD).  That I am INTP goes a long way toward explaining the number of big plans, and the idea that I have experienced them to some level of satisfaction. Knowing that I am a person with PD helps to lessen the frustration of experiencing the big plans only to some level as I sum up my history.

As I reflect on my history I note that I have been a photographer, albeit, of limited skill achievement. When I joined the Navy -while still in high school- I declared my primary interest as photography and was assured that I could pursue that field once I was on active duty after my reserve status during my final year of high school. The closest pursuit I made was buying a Mamiyaflex C330.  My Navy work assignment was as an aviation supply clerk. The positive thing about that was that it got me some good duty assignments. Since my departure from the Navy, I have always owned a good camera, and have accumulated a satisfying photo collection. 

As for my Navy career, well, I had a four-year extension added to my initial two years and went a bit over the six years. I had good duty assignments beginning with an anti-submarine squadron out of Maryland which led to an assignment in Bermuda during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and later an assignment in Ireland for a NATO  exercise. Later I was assigned to a hydrographic survey ship stationed in Brooklyn, New York, that did a cruise in the Mediterranean Sea with some time off in Italy, Greece, and Spain. Finally, I was assigned for my last two years to a station in the middle of England. There I had my wife and our first-born son living with me off-base. While there I took some University of Maryland courses that convinced me I should get a degree and become a teacher of Sociology. 

It was while I was in the Navy on the NATO assignment in Ireland that I met the woman -a girl then-  who would become my wife, and with whom we would have five children. A dozen was quickly out of the question; five worked out nicely. 

Out of the Navy, I moved back home to Minneapolis, and on to St Cloud with my wife, Anna, and our two children Paul Jr and Jacqueline. I completed my BA degree, and with my family in need of a place to live and income for a livelihood, I took a job as a county social worker where I stayed for thirty years, retiring as a Child Protection Social Worker. That was applied Sociology. During that time we had three more children: Daniel, Conor, and Sara. 

In the year before I retired from the County, I took a certification course from the Myers-Briggs organization and did become certified to administer the MBTI. With little skill development beyond the certification process, I have not found many opportunities for presenting the program.  Shortly after my retirement, I took a course at the University of Minnesota adult extension program on writing the personal essay. I'm still in the process of determining if I can become an essayist. Following my retirement, we built a lake home north of Minneapolis. We had the good fortune of knowing an independent builder, a jack-of-all-trades, the husband of one of Anna's good friends, who took me on as his helper. That build satisfied a long-held need for creative work.  It was about six years after we built the lake home that I was diagnosed to have Parkinson's Disease. That changed everything. 

I did not make a career out of the Navy. I did not become a professional photographer. I did not become an MBTI consultant. I can't claim to be an essayist. We had five children, not twelve. I did not become a high school teacher. I am reevaluating my expectation of living to age 104. I did help build a home. 

I have few regrets. I did enjoy my time in the Navy. I didn't see the world but I did see enough of it to be glad to have a home to return to in Minnesota. To this day I have a good camera -now, a digital camera- and enjoy capturing good shots. Anna has been the best wife I could hope for; far better than I deserve. Our five children are all grown, married, and have children of their own; our nine grandchildren. I am glad for my degree in sociology and the worldview it led to. At this time in my life, I don't see much opportunity for presenting the MBTI. Still, combined with my education in sociology, it's a part of my development and is satisfying. 

Upon reflection, having few regrets, I see that Parkinson's Disease didn't really change my great expectations. I've had almost eighty trips around the sun and whatever expectations I will reflect on in the future will simply be additions to the good fortunes I've already experienced.