The thing that did it for me was when I was strong-armed by the elders. My crime was missing too many meetings because my weekly flights to Washington DC and Greenbelt MD were conflicting with the Borg schedule. Out of all the people in the world, I was selected by NASA to test and validate the security of the then most expensive satellite in the world, the Hubble Space Telescope before it launched. I thought that was kind of a special honor from the government, who the hell get’s a call like that, this is something you don’t easily turn down, this was my dream job!
I explained to the dear inquisition panel (elders) that this consulting job (which paid me more money then I ever made in my life and was helping to pull me out of debt in a very short timeframe) would be over in about a month and that I would then take off my NASA security engineer hat and return to my real life as a (cringe) TV repairman, back again in regular attendance at the ever so important meetings (double cringe). I was writing the final report for this project, I had only 30 days to go on this project, 30 lousy days, they couldn’t wait the 30 days, and they said I had to make a choice, meetings or the NASA dream job.
The day I was given this ultimatum was coincidently on July 4 th , 1987.
I won’t tell you directly, but see if you can guess which path I chose.
Here is a hint:
Each year July 4 th is a very, very special day for me, not just as an American celebrating a holiday, but as someone who truly gained their independence on that date and started to live free!
Freeman (who’s very name reminds him of that special day in July of 1987)
