As I was watching part 3 of the video on Thursday, something really hit home with me. The video was talking about how blue collar people often get treated badly and people treat them as though they are dumb. I have such a great example for this. My dad is a truck driver, and has been for over 15 years. He works for a company called Blue Rhino that delivers gas cylinders to all you who cookout on the grill!!! Anyway --- my dad and I have often had conversations where he tells me how awful he is treated and how much people look down on him for being a truck driver and coming home with grease on his clothes. This angers me more than anything, if it werent for the blue collared people in our society we would have absolutely nothing. I really connected with that part of the video and thought I would share. I'd love to hear any similar experiences!!!! Thanks

My mom went to school to be a nurse, but when we moved to the Outer Banks when I was five to join the rest of our "clan" there was not a hospital. My dad did several jobs here and there and finally started a cleaning business. My mom ran it with him. My mom is the greatest mom. She was always willing to volunteer at school, I had fun sleepovers, my friends could talk to her when they couldn't talk to their moms, and for the most part, other parents treated her with respect. But you could never forget that your mom was the cleaning lady when you ran into her clients at football games, parades or pretty much anywhere in our small town. It wasn't that they were rude to her, in fact they loved her. But you know it was like, "oh there's Jane! She is so good at cleaning. She cleans my house for me and can get my toilet spotless like no one can. I swear I trash my million dollar wadrobe on the walk in closet every week and she always manages to get it straight again. I don't know what I would do without her. I wonder if she will start making meals for me." OKay, so I am a little bitter. And yes, embarrassing enough, there was a time when I was less than proud of my mom. That would have been about the first few years of high school time when I actually went to school with the kids of the parents that my mom (and I when I was dragged against my will on a Saturday) cleaned for. I honestly was low enough to think that running into someone where I had cleaned up their messiness was beneath me. But I quickly got over that when i realized that my mom and the business made really good money, respectable money, cleaning houses, cleaning the power company, cleaning the police station. And I got off my high horse. Which is great since now I am following in her footsteps to earn my own money. I get up at 530am some mornings to clean the grease and shrimp sauce spots off tables and chairs at Makotos. It's not pretty, and I am officially disgusted with grease soaked carpet, but it's really good money. And the house I clean on Wednesdays, no tax is taken out so it's like extra cash. And I work really hard for that money. I feel accomplished, I feel like that person is coming home to a clean house and can spend time on her family instead of dusting. And I help her do that. Anyway, didn't mean to ramble, just know what it is like.

I completely agree with you two. Society tells us the only way you are successful is if you drive to work in a BMW and wear a suit and tie to work everyday. But I hands down disagree with that. I think it depends on what you see when you think of success, but success to me is a lot different than a white collar worker. It is someone who works with their whole heart to get where they are. Somedays they hate it, somedays they don't, but they are there everyday regardless. That is success to me. Being successful can be measured by the ways you take care of the people around you... loving someone so much it hurts... that is success to me. Making sure someone knows that you appreciate them, that is success to me. I wish the world saw success a little differently, too.