Sometimes, I think it'd be pretty cool to be a father-figure; to have young, impressionable minds look to me as the sole font of wisdom in this world, and to obey my every dictate as if it came from a particularly angry and vengeful god.

Then I remember that: A) I'm a horrible influence on people, and nobody should emulate me under any circumstances; and B) I've already got several students who are the exact same flavour of misanthrope as myself, and so already look to me as an example.

Gods help them.

Everyone throughout you life is going to lie to you, or at best misconstrue the truth. Sometimes they do it because they are being deceitful, but more often than not, it's just because somebody else told them a lie, and they believed it. They will tell you that can't do certain things that you want to do, or that you have to do certain things you don't want to do.

This is all nonsense. You can do whatever you want at any time. There will be consequences, but you are Free. You have Free Will. This doesn't mean that you should give into any random urge or whim.

What it means is, that whenever anyone tells you have to do something, or that you can't do something, they're playing by the rules. And remember that rules are always set by other people. So when you play by their rules, you're playing their game.

I don't want you to play their game.

I want you to play your own game.

And I want you to win.

Best wishes from Pappy Theo.

That's it ! I'm joining the Marines.

Now you can't boss me around anymore !