Matthew Osborne
My short visit to Florida last week was eye-opening. I have one friend whose daughter is the CEO of a non-profit company – at age 13.
My nephew is starring in and directing a production of “Little Shop of Horrors.” He just turned 14.
What was I doing around those ages? Not much.
Playing basketball in the neighborhood, running March Madness bracket pools, going to ball games … wait a second, my interests have not changed much.
But at no time was I accomplishing what these kids are. I wonder, what could I have done back then that would have changed the course of my life?
I sat at the bar watching hoops over the weekend with my buddy Kevin, who reminded me that we basically invented something almost identical to “South Park” when we were kids. We just never put it on paper, or, you know, accomplished anything with it.
That’s probably because it was stupid, and if you told me then that two guys could make millions off that kind of nonsense, I would have laughed.
Clearly, I was not the forward thinking entrepreneur I should have been at 13.
There are a lot of things I would have been super interested in growing up if I knew they were lucrative options today.
I have worked in newspapers since I was 15 and have had no other job, which makes me both unusual and seemingly single-minded in focus. But I wanted to either be a game show host or bounty hunter when I was young.
I loved “The Joker’s Wild” with Wink Martindale, along with other shows like “The Price is Right” and “Press Your Luck.” Don’t get me started on my Price is Right story, that will take me down a dark path of sadness that I am not ready for today. Maybe in a future column I will be ready to face that demon after 20 years.
But I love game shows, and I think I could have been fun running one. I really do not enjoy Ken Jennings as the “Jeopardy” host now. It is almost as if when Alex Trebek passed, they said “We need someone just a little more smug, you know, who will talk down to you.” Enter Jennings. I could totally do that job better than him, but maybe not better than Blossom.
As for bounty hunting, back then I would have listed my references as “Fett, Boba,” but if I had known the sensation that Dog The Bounty Hunter would become, I would have run away to Hawaii and moved into his house. He had like 14 kids so I doubt he would have noticed.
I guess I just wasn’t cut out to take on the world as a pre-teen. But at least I know some of these kids are really going places.
Matthew Osborne is the editor of The Northeast Georgian. Reach him at 706-778-4215 or editor@TheNortheastGeorgian.com.