Man do I wish I could upvote this 10 times!! I have been a pretty shit father quite a lot of the time...ESPECIALLY to my oldest who is 25. I wasn't mean, abusive or anything like that.....I did, however, cheat on his mom quite often, (we're still married, she's a freaking saint) I was often away from home when I wasn't working. Going out with friends, attempting to get laid...blah blah. I smoked A LOT of weed. Anyhow.....at 25, he's still pretty messed up....been kicked out of the house because he simply will not stop lying and STEALING from us. Smokes pot, won't actually hold down a job...he'll get a job and work a month, two or 3 but...then either stops going in or steals and gets caught...always something. This last time we finally put him out for good.....He started in on me. You're a piece of shit.....you were never around, always on your computer, blah blah blah.....Remember, he's 25, not 15. There comes a point in your life when you have to start taking the blame for the stupid shit that YOU do to YOURSELF. I live in the Permian Basin. People here can get a job without even trying that will pay between 80 and 100,000 plus with no experience. Sure, you have to work and you have to work long hours, but it pays the bills. He's currently working at IHoP, he simply cannot stop smoking pot long enough to pass a drug test in order to get a high paying job.
Anyhow, you're right.....You life is a huge series of choices. EVERYTHING you do, involves choices. From whether you get up to take that pee right now or wait til a commercial comes on, to whether you say yes to the person who asks you to marry him. The TINIEST parts of your life involve choice and you can make good choices or bad choices. From the time that you start high school every choice you make can affect your life. I'm so glad that things worked out for you and I'm glad that you had this teacher in your life. It sucks that some of us just suck as parents, but.....people like you and my 17 year old daughter who barely had me in her life and graduated a year early and is a freshman in college right now, let me know that there is some hope for our world yet.
Good luck to you, thank you for sharing!!!