Dan was one of the last people left at the construction site. He was cleaning the cement mixer. Despite his best efforts, it wouldn't ever look like new. It was just another of those nasty jobs given to the new guy on the crew. The day had been filled with lots of those kinds of jobs. Fortunately, he wasn't nearly as tired by the end of the day as he had been the previous week.
Looking at the mixer, his boss said, "That's good enough. Why don't you head home?"
In what Dan considered to be the ultimate in irony, his boss's last name was Foreman and he was the owner of Foreman General Contracting. While walking over to the water spigot, Dan said, "Mr. Foreman, I've got a question for you."
"What?" Mr. Foreman asked glancing at his watch. He wanted to get out of there to check out another job site.
While turning off the water to the hose, Dan asked, "What kinds of benefits are there?"
"To what?" the man asked glancing over at Dan.
"You know  job benefits. Do we have insurance? If so, what kind? Sick Days? Vacation days? That kind of stuff," Dan answered.
"You work and I pay. That's it," Mr. Foreman answered giving Dan the short answer. Dan was basically a day laborer who he used to fill in on any crew where there was a shortage.
Nodding his head, Dan started coiling the hose at the base of the water spigot. Looking up from his work, he said, "Thanks. That's what I figured."
Realizing that he hadn't given Dan many details about working in the construction industry, he said, "Friday you'll get paid for last week. It is going to be a short pay check because you only worked four days out of a two week pay period. If you want health or life insurance, you're going to have to buy it on your own.
"I hired you as a general gofer to fill in on crews that are short a person. As a result, you'll move from crew to crew until I find one where you'll fit. You're entry level and won't make much, but with a little experience you'll settle into a better job. Maybe you'll be best as a painter, roofer, or carpenter. Once you get some skills under your belt, you'll make an extra two or three dollars an hour.
"Unless there's interior work to be done, you won't work when it rains and that means you won't get paid. Work slows down in the winter and only the best workers get jobs. We're in a good area and the winter is short. We don't get much rain in the summertime, but it is hotter than hell."
Dan frowned and said, "It sure doesn't sound like much of a career."
"It's not that bad. You can raise a family on that kind of wage, but it won't be easy. Your wife will have to work. I know; I was where you are at one time. I spent a lot of time learning every job on a construction site. I got my contractor's license and my pay doubled. Now I make very good money," Mr. Foreman said thinking it was a little unusual for someone Dan's age to be talking about job benefits and approaching construction as a career.
"You've given me a few things to think about," Dan said.
"If you'll take my advice, you won't go out and blow all of your money on beer or drugs like most of the guys. A lot of them are employed about half time. They're always short of money. Their personal lives are a wreck. They go out and pick up a few cash only jobs to get some quick money, but they don't really work all that much," Mr. Foreman said. A lot of contractors woke late, spent their time in bars, and earned just enough to keep in beer. He approached his job like a professional and that was why his business had grown.
Dan nodded his head and said, "I already noticed that."
Mr. Foreman studied Dan for a second and knew that he was going to lose the young man sooner or later. He was a good hard worker, but there wasn't too much that he could do to make the going easier on him. He said, "Stick with the job a little while and learn some skills. My Daddy always said that a man who knows how to work with his hands will never starve. You might not end up doing this for the rest of your life, but you'll learn some things that will come in handy. One day you'll own a house. Knowing how to use some tools could end up saving you a lot of money."
"You're right," Dan said. He had already come to the conclusion that keeping the job for a while would allow him to save some money and to learn some things. That day he had learned how to mix cement and take care of the cement mixer. That had been something he had never known and had never thought about learning, but he could see where it could come in handy. The trick in life was to always have as many choices as possible.
"Get out of here. I need to get to the next site," Mr. Foreman said. He wrote down in his little book that this particular site was shut down for the night. It was a habit that his father had passed onto him.
"See you tomorrow," Dan said.
Mr. Foreman watched Dan leave wondering why a smart kid like him would bother with a career in construction. He had entered into it working for his father. His dad had taught him a lot about the business and had emphasized that it was a business. A lot of the successful people in construction entered the field that way. Those folks who drifted into it tended to drift out of it.
Dan pulled the pizza out of the oven and slipped it onto the counter. He took the pizza cutter and sliced it into eighths. His audience watched him working in the kitchen with anticipation. He turned and repeated the process for the second pizza.
Diana could already taste the pizzas. She said, "You make the best pizzas in town."
Tom said, "You can say that again."
His mother remembered when making the perfect pizza had become Dan's quest as a kid. It had started with the packaged pizza dough mix that came with a can of sauce and powdered cheese. Dan had first moved to fresher toppings. Then he had started making the dough from scratch. It wasn't long after that when he began experimenting with his own homemade sauce. There had been a few spectacular failures along the way, but he now produced a pizza that ranked up there with the best. She said, "I hate to think of the day when you move out and we have to start buying pizza from the store."
"The store bought pizzas aren't that bad," Dan said as he carried the pizzas to the table.
Looking like she had bitten into something rotten, Diana said, "I was at a party the other day and everyone was raving about the pizza. The sauce was kind of sour, the crust tasted like cardboard, and the toppings were greasy. I could barely eat it."
"That's true. I've gotten spoiled eating your pizzas," Tom said without taking his eyes off the pizzas Dan was carrying. His parents had stopped ordering pizzas because he wouldn't eat them.
"Well, let's dig in while they're hot," Dan said. He called out to the living room, "Dad! The pizzas are ready!"
Everyone gathered around the table and started reaching for slices of hot pizza. Most of the time Dan made two large pizzas and the family usually ate all of them in one sitting. The chances of having any leftovers were zero with Tom joining them. Dan's father took one bite and said, "Oh, this is good."
"I'm glad you like it," Dan said tasting his slice. Satisfied with the overall experience, he couldn't think of anyway to improve the flavor. This was his basic cheese pizza. He had two cheese, three cheese, and four cheese versions that took a little longer to make. He said, "Not bad for a basic pizza."
Holding a slice of pizza in front of his mouth anticipating the next bite, Tom said, "This is outstanding."
"You bet," Diana said reaching for her second slice. She chose one from the half that had pepperoni on it.
"I've got to admit that cooking the pizzas on the stone really improved the quality of the crust. One of these days I'm going to get a wood brick oven and see how that improves the flavor," Dan said looking over at the oven.
His mother could just imagine him going out and having a wood brick oven built just to see how it improved the quality of his pizzas. When it came to pizza, Dan was very serious about making the best pizza in the world. She said, "You and your quest for the perfect pizza."
"We all have our own little passion. Mine is the perfect pizza. Tom's is to understand the universe," Dan said. He was used to getting teased about his little hobby.
Diana raised an eyebrow as she looked at her brother. She asked, "What is my passion?"
"You want to be the smartest person in the world," Tom answered.
Surprised that Tom answered her question, Diana asked, "How do you know?"
"You spend as much time studying as me, but you don't have to work that hard. You get straight A's in school," Dan answered.
"I notice little things like that," Tom said. He grabbed another slice of pizza knowing that the fastest eater at the table got four slices instead of just three. It was a little game that they played when Dan cooked pizza. He glanced at Dan's father and noticed that he was pulling ahead.
Noticing the glance, Dan's father said, "That's it. Just keep talking and I'll get that last slice."
Tom laughed and asked, "So how was your day at work?"
"That's not going to work," Dan's dad answered before taking another bite out of his slice of pizza. He had fallen for that trick once. Everyone around the table laughed at the exchange.
Tom took a drink out of the ever present can of root beer before attacking his slice of pizza. Diana watched him thinking that Dan was lucky to have such a good friend. She had grown up watching Dan struggle with his school work. After becoming friends with Tom, it seemed to her that it hadn't been such a struggle. No matter how busy he was, Tom would take the time to discuss the material with Dan and that had given Dan the edge he needed to learn it.
Looking over at his sister, Dan said, "Diana, you've gotten quiet all of a sudden."
"Oh, I'm just thinking about things," she answered with a shrug of her shoulders.
"What kinds of things?" Tom asked.
Searching for a topic, Diana answered, "I was wondering if you were going to stay in construction."
"I don't think so," Dan answered surprising everyone at the table except for Tom. Tom smiled and nodded his head.
His father asked, "Why not?"
"I don't see much of a future in construction for me," Dan answered.
With a worried expression on his face, his father asked, "What are you going to do?"
"Don't worry; I'm going to keep the job for a while longer. I figure I'll pick up some good skills that I'll need later on in life, but it isn't really the kind of job that I see doing for the rest of my life. I think I want something that is a little more dependable," Dan answered.
"Like what?" his mother asked.
Dan shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don't know. All that I do know is that I have choices. I just have to find out what they are, investigate them, and select the one that is best for me."
Tom glanced down at his slice of pizza and grinned as an idea came to him. Sometimes the best choice was right under a person's nose. He'd wait to bring up the idea until after Dan had finished reading all three articles. He took a bite and listened to the conversation flow around the table.
Interested in what his son way saying, Dan's father put down his slice of pizza and said, "That's a very mature way to think about your future. Assess your choices and then select the one that is best for you."
"Thanks. Earlier this week, I was asking Mr. Foreman about benefits and he told me that there weren't any. I figure that if I'm going to settle down and raise a family one day that I had better make sure that I had insurance in case anything bad happened to me," Dan said.
"You're already thinking about insurance?" Dan's father asked in surprise.
"Sure," Dan said. He gestured over to Tom with his slice of pizza and said, "We've been talking about that kind of stuff lately. The decisions that we make today can have long term consequences in life. Tom has decided to go to college. That decision is likely to put him into a pretty good economic bracket. He'll be able to afford a nice lifestyle.
"Me, I've decided not to go to college. That decision is likely to put me into a different economic bracket. It is highly unlikely that I will be able to afford to live like this, but that isn't carved in stone. With a few smart decisions now, I can have a much better life later."
Diana watched Tom eating his pizza. He had a gleam in his eye and realized that he was going to eat while everyone else was talking. Tom winked at her and flicked his eyes over to the slices of pizza on the table. She giggled at the thought of how her father was going to react when Tom got the last slice.
Unaware of the silent communication between Tom and Diana, Dan's father asked, "What kinds of decisions are you talking about?"
"Well, I guess the first thing that I have to decide is what will make me happy," Dan answered.
"What has happiness got to do with anything?"
Smiling at his father, Dan answered, "Everything. Is it better to have a career that you enjoy or to have one that you hate when the difference between the two is twenty or thirty dollars a week with taxes eating up part of it?"
"I guess I hadn't thought about it like that." His father glanced over at his wife wondering what she was making of the conversation. Listening to his son talking about job benefits, taxes, and career was completely unexpected.
"It is a fact of life that we are responsible for our own happiness," Dan said making reference to one of the sections of the article he had just finished reading. He said, "I have to decide what I enjoy doing. My definition doesn't have to agree with anyone else's definition because it is me that will be living my life."
"That's true," Diana said wondering when her brother had suddenly become so wise.
Tom raised his hands and said, "I got the fourth slice of pizza!"
Dan's father looked down at his plate and then over at Tom who was deftly removing a slice of pizza from the center of the table. He said, "Damn. I know better than to talk when Dan makes pizza."
Tom and Dan were outside sitting on the steps drinking root beers. It was night, but the lights of the city washed out the stars. The moon hadn't risen yet, so it was fairly dark outside. The chirps of crickets announcing the temperature filled the air. Tom said, "Based on the conversation around the table, it sounds like you finished the first article."
"I finished it last night," Dan said.
"All in all, what did you think of it?" Tom asked.
Dan said, "It was definitely thought provoking. It made me think about things that I wouldn't have ever thought about without reading it. That section about being responsible for my own happiness really struck a nerve."
Nodding his head, Tom said, "I know what you mean. I was all prepared to declare a major until I read that section. I realized that I didn't know enough about physics, chemistry, or mathematics to know which one gave me the most pleasure."
"I wondered about that after reading that section," Dan said.
Tom nodded his head and said, "I suggest that you read the article about the pursuit of happiness next."
"Why?"
"It really sets you up for the last article on how to take control of your life. It is more about defining what you want to accomplish with your life. It is a little longer than the last paper, but I think it is the best one of the three articles," Tom answered. The ideas in that article had really blown him away. He said, "If you think the facts of life article is life changing, wait until you finish the pursuit of happiness. In a way, it changed my whole approach to life."
Dan knew that Tom wouldn't say something like that just to make idle chit chat. He hadn't really noticed that much of a difference in Tom over the past few months except for the fact that he was a little more focused on his future. He asked, "In what way?"
Tom thought about it for a moment and then answered, "You know my father was always giving me advice on what to do and how to do it. Sometimes I listened to him and sometimes I didn't. After reading that article, I realized that my dad was giving me advice based on what would have made him happier. He was guiding me on the assumption that what would have made his life better would make me happier in the long run.
"After reading that article, I realized that my dad and I are a little different. Blindly following or not following his advice wasn't really helping me. I had to ask for his advice knowing where I wanted to be in the future. Since I didn't know, I couldn't ask the right questions. Now that I've got a better idea, I can listen to his advice with a critical ear and make real decisions."
"Wow," Dan said. He could see how that would be useful.
"Yeah," Tom said. The article had helped him define what he wanted out of life. The last article had shown him how to pursue it.
"Is that why you decided to go to the University of Texas rather than MIT?" Dan asked. Tom's only explanation in the past was that he would be happier at UT than MIT.
Nodding his head, Tom answered, "Yes, it is. My father was positive that I made a bad decision, but it feels right to me. I realized that MIT didn't offer me all of the things that would contribute to my happiness while the University of Texas did. They both have good programs in the sciences."
"You really hated Boston," Dan said.
"That's right. I'd be miserable there," Tom said. He didn't think he'd like living there for four years. It would be worse knowing that his misery was his own fault. It wasn't until he had been able to frame his argument in the right way that his father had finally understood his decision. The more his father had considered it, the more he approved of the decision. He said, "My father has finally come around to seeing it from my perspective and supports my decision."
"That really does impress me," Dan said.
Tom smiled and said, "I think your dad is beginning to like the way that you are thinking about your future."
"You know, that really surprised me," Dan said. He had sat around the table with Tom and his father for almost an hour talking about his thoughts about the future.
"He was more interested in talking with you about your plans than he was in your pizza. That's saying a lot," Tom said.
"You can say that again," Dan said. He took a sip of his root beer and was surprised to find that it was warm. He hadn't realized they had been outside talking for so long.
The two young men sat around talking about topics that were of general interest to young men  cars, women, work, money, and women. Of course, women had to appear in the list twice. The conversation always came back to women. Tom said, "I called Susan Anderson earlier today."
"Susan Anderson?" Dan asked unable to believe his ears. Tom had had a crush on Susan Anderson for the past year.
"Yes. I asked her to go to the movies with me tomorrow night," Tom said. The conversation hadn't turned out quite the way he had planned, but it had taken a direction that was perhaps better than planned.
"Did she say yes?"
Tom grinned and said, "She said no. Instead, she suggested that I take her to the lake Sunday."
"So you're going to get to spend the day with Susan Anderson? Wait a minute, if she's at the lake, won't she be wearing a bathing suit?" Dan asked.
"That's what I was thinking," Tom said with a grin. He hadn't even dreamed of having the chance to see Susan Anderson in a swimsuit.
"You lucky dog," Dan said. Dan had gone through high school without having much luck with women. He had a total of three dates; each with a different girl. He had only managed to kiss one of them. They all turned him down for additional dates after getting flack about having dated the school loser.
"Your turn will come," Tom said.
"I doubt it," Dan said with a shrug of his shoulders.
"High school is over. You won't have to fight the miserable social status crap any more. You'll be able to deal with women without having to put up with a sick rumor mill fueled by Kim Parker. You're a nice guy and girls like nice guys," Tom said.
"Nice guys finish last," Dan said.
"Don't believe that rubbish. Lots of nice guys finish first. The reason people say that is because timid nice guys don't ask, they wish. You know that wishing doesn't get anything done," Tom said.
"Where in the hell am I going to meet a girl?" Dan asked. Even if he were to meet one, he didn't know if he even knew what to say to her. Odds were pretty good that he'd just stand there like an idiot with his lips flapping while uttering random sounds.
"Now that might be a problem," Tom admitted. Hanging around a construction site wasn't the best place to meet women.
Over the past week, Diana had watched her brother studying something with greater intensity than she had ever seen him apply to his homework and that was saying a lot. Curious, she slipped into his bedroom to find out what was so interesting. She found the article on the top of the stack and picked it up. Reading the title, she grinned and said, "Oh boy  The Facts Of Life. I thought that Dan already knew about how the stork delivered babies to the cabbage patch."
Diana started reading the article and quickly discovered that it wasn't exactly what she thought it was about. After reading the first section, she glanced over at her brother's notes in the margin. His spelling was atrocious, but his ideas were amazing. She copied the URL from the top of the page and returned to her room.
Once there, she went to the website and downloaded a copy of the article for herself. Settling down into her chair, she started to read. She didn't stop until she had finished the article. She recognized the ideas that her brother had spoken about over dinner. He might have difficulty reading and he might not be able to spell well, but he was smart.
It had always amazed her that only one person at the school had ever recognized that about her brother. She said, "That Tom is a real good friend for Dan."
She sighed and considered Tom. She knew that the cliché thing would be for her to have a crush on him. She didn't. She loved Tom like a brother, but she wasn't interested in him. She worried about him. He could have been class valedictorian, but he had gotten a B in his art class. She believed that he had done that intentionally and didn't understand why he would do it.
Grabbing a pink sheet of paper that was easier for Tom to read, she put it in the printer. She went to her computer and typed up the facts of life. She did her best to format it in a nice manner.
The Facts Of Life
Life is not fair.
No one is exempt from death.
Physics rules the universe and biology rules life.
The universe does not care.
The only constant in life is change.
There is always a choice.
Wishing never makes it so.
A person can't exceed their limits.
A person is responsible for their own happiness.
It is impossible to change the character of another.
After printing it up, she took the copy and put it on her brother's
desk. She hoped that he would appreciate it. She printed up a second
copy for herself wishing that she could make it poster sized. She hung
it on her note board and studied it.