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My father's generation was slightly different than the others before him. He grew up extremely poor in the city Managua, Nicaragua. He began working as a chilg as a shoe shiner to help put food on the table. Once again, the generational trend repeats itself. The only way a person could gain a decnt living, is to work and study hard. Around this time, Ronald had graduated higgh school, but due to the economical situation in Nicaragua, he could not afford to go to college. His dream was to always go to college, get a Masters in Business Administration, and start up his own shipping company. At the age of twenty, he gave up his shoe shinning days, and began working at a printing press. To escape the pressure of family life, and overall pressure, there is one thing that all Nicaraguan males do. And that is to head to the local farm or field to play baseball. Ronald around this age, became really popular among many of his ball playing peers. Many of which thought that he was a great baseball player and would someday make it to the professional level.
Word eventually got around to companies that sposored professional Nicaraguan baseball teams. This one company, Ingeniria de Nicaragua (Logistics of Nicaragua) showed up to his house after playing a long game of baseball on a Sunday evening. My father got home, preparing his clothes for the next morning, and was listening to "Love Me Do" by the beatles. This, was his ritual after every Sunday game. To turn on his radio and hope for the Beatles to come on, whch was a sure thing. Around this time, the British Invasion had just begun. He hears a knock on the door, and this man presented himself ass the president of Ingenieria de Nicaragua with a proposal. The deal, was that if he would try out, and make it on to the baseball team that they sponsored, they would pay for all of his expenses to study in Mexico. Afterwards they would offer him a job at a managerial level, which would surely get him out of poverty.
Like Confucius began to require his students to pass a battery of exams to become Mandarins, my father had to also pass a battery of test to prove his proficiency and worthiness of initiation into a professional baseball team. Obviously, with his hopes and dreams riding on this try out, he was extremly nervous. He found himself singing "love Me do" by the Beatles to call his nerves. He later became a member of that team, studied in Mexico, and recieved his Masters in Business. The reason why my father thinks this initiation was his most important was because it made him into the hard working man he is today, and helped him get out of poverty.
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