A path to follow

Its odd as you get older how the perspective of hindsight makes sense. Much of our lives plays out according to chance with very little focused planning to it. One might pursue education as a route to somewhere but few of us have an innate desire to be something specific. The environment we grow up in plays its part, the type of work ones father or mother did or their friends did, influenced us but didn't answer the question, if it was asked 

"what are you going to do when you leave school" ?
This I think was more the case for those growing up in what we would term the 'working class household' than those from a middle class background where the path into a profession was much more on every ones mind. Some of course would follow their father into the family business and their fate was sealed at an early age but for the vast majority what you would choose to do in your life was a lottery and of course the word 'choose' has connotations which were not available to the many.
Work was a 'job', a job was a way to earn a wage and a wage was the passport to doing the things we really enjoyed. Enjoyment then fell outside of the job, there was little satisfaction in doing something over which there were few career opportunities, in fact the concept of a career was alien to us and we simply turned up for work each day with an eye on the clock for us to escape to do the things we enjoyed doing.
Its no wonder that amongst the working class their are few reunions to bind us to that formative period of school and whist as I write I wonder about the class of 1954 (many of them pushing up the daisies) there is no alumni to call on and have dinner with.
This clearly formed in my mind my own exclusiveness a loners protective shield which took events as they were played out and made the best of the hand offered. A lack of direction is a prescription to fail or so my wife often told me but in all honesty a plan never formed in my mind and I was happy to be as successful in my limited concept of what being successful meant. Money or prestige were never my goals, respect yes, friendship yes, loyalty yes but these were seen as humanitarian traits which I expected across the board, a simple contribution, one human being to another.