Don't Give-Up

I putzed around a little this morning before heading to my math class and arrived two minutes before eight. My professor was already handing around the clipboard for attendance so my eyes scanned to room fast for a spot.  They passed over a guy in a red MN sweatshirt, then snapped back to the open computer next to him.  I took my seat and went to turn on my screen... but the damn thing wouldn't start. I was getting frustrated, and he watched me struggle for a couple of minutes before laughing.  He reached over me and proceeded to push the one button on the whole machine that for some reason I hadn't been able to find... it was the power button.
How Convenient.
I thanked him and laughed at myself to ease the embarrassment a little.  He told me no problem, he worked on computers all the time.  I don't really know anyone in that class so I grabbed at the opportunity for conversation.
If there is one thing I've found in all my years on this earth, it's that people really like to talk about themselves.  It is a subject that they never get bored of,  and the more questions I asked him the more I learned about his story.
He had dropped out of both high school and college, after struggling socially and falling behind academically in his classes.  He tried woking a full-time job for a couple of years, before he found he was really un-happy with his career and came clean with himself about needing to get an education.  So he went back and had to pretty-much start from scratch.
We didn't get much done in our class, and we found ourselves getting further and further off-topic as we talked.  One line, that he said at the very beginning of our conversation, stuck with me a while.  Even after class had already finished and I'd closed out of the program, screen still on problem number one.  He had shaken his head hard and waved his hands in a giant "x" gesture as he'd told me,
"I thought school was bad, but my job was worse so I came back. Don't ever drop out of college, just don't.  Because without it things really just fricken suck."
You know, sometimes the most unexpected people remind you of the most important things in the most unexpected ways.
I think Kevin was reminding me of how important it is to never, ever give-up.  Because things, I find, really always do get better.  And we are all capable of doing anything we put our minds too, as long as we work hard and go-out and get it. Things don't always go as planned, we are all too well aware of this fact. Every now and then, your gonna have to start over from scratch.
And that is perfectly okay.