Uncle Jake wanted to tell a story about a fighter pilot that he knew when he was
a kid and this fighter pilot taught uncle Jake some very important lessons
so here is a story from uncle Jake when I was a kid I had a kid in my
fourth-grade class named Jonathan that sat behind me in class he wasn't really
my friend but he was friends with some of my friends and this boy Jonathan used
to talk all the time talk talk talk talk talk and it really
annoyed me not only did he talk but he had a voice that kind of came out
through his nose and it made it even more annoying he would say hey what are
you guys doing what are you up to what are you doing what's happening how how
are you guys doing non-stop all the time and the more I was around him the more I
got annoyed sometimes I even got angry so one day it really started to get to
me so I told him to just be quiet and he was quiet for a little while but not for
very long and then it was talk talk talk talk talk again
talk talk talk I couldn't stand it it was so aggravating finally one day I got
super annoyed we were sitting on the ground during reading time and I was
just trying to read and he kept talking I'd had enough and I finally looked at
him and I said would you just shut your mouth
only instead of saying it quietly because I was so mad it came out way too
loud so loud that everyone in the classroom heard me say it including the
teacher and my teacher did not like that at all and I got in trouble the teacher
mrs. Talley was her name she came over and sent me to the principal's office I
was the one that got sent to the principal's office even though it was
Jonathan that had been talking now what was I going to do as you can imagine the
principal called my house and told my parents I had been in trouble
now pay attention here because I have to tell you another part of the story it's
a story within a story but it will lead back to Jonathan and how that whole
situation turned out you see there was a man that used to come over to our house
sometimes he was older than my dad but not by much my dad called him captain
the captain had been in the Navy but he didn't drive ships he was a pilot in the
Navy he flew planes and during the Vietnam War his plane was shot down and
he parachuted to the ground but when he landed he was surrounded by the enemy
and they captured him and put him into a prisoner of war camp and it was an awful
place there was horrible food and they didn't get much of it and the water made
them sick and they lived in barren rooms called prison cells and it was hot and
it was miserable and the prisoners were treated horribly by the guards in the
prison they were beaten and they were starved and they were given no freedom
to do anything the only good thing that the prisoners had is that they were not
alone there were other prisoners there mostly other pilots that had been shot
down and most of the time they lived with each other in these tiny prison
cells I only knew about all this because my dad had told me what had happened to
the captain well after I got in trouble at school for getting annoyed at
Jonathan who talked all the time and I yelled at him my dad invited the captain
over to my house and my dad said that the captain wanted to tell me something
then when we sat down after dinner the captain looked at me and started to talk
and when the captain talked everybody listened the captain spoke
slowly and clearly and you could tell that he meant every word he said and
this is what he told me that night he said Jake I know you got into some
trouble at school I know you got annoyed with another kid and yelled at him
during class now I want to tell you something when I was a fighter pilot I
was shot down and got captured by the enemy I was put into a prison camp and
it was a horrible place and in that prison we had cellmates those were the
other prisoners that we lived with and the rooms were small and we were hungry
and we were sick and we were tired and we were miserable and in that terrible
situation it would be very very easy for me to get annoyed with my cellmates in
fact we all could have gotten annoyed with each other maybe my cellmate snored
or maybe he coughed all day and all night or maybe he knocked his knuckles
all the time or picked his nose or scratched his feet in a gross way that
made me really annoyed but Jake I was in that prison camp with those other guys
for six years six years that is a long long long time to be in prison and that
is a long long long time to be annoyed and in that prison we didn't have many
other choices for friends it was just us and our cellmates that's it so we came
up with a rule and the rule was that if someone annoyed us it wasn't their fault
it was our fault it was our fault if we let their snoring
bother us if my roommates snored it was my fault if I let that bother me it was
my fault if I got aggravated at the way my cell mate scratched his feet it was
my fault if I couldn't stand the way that my cell mate coughed or talked or
cracked his knuckles it was my fault that was the rule we couldn't allow
ourselves to get annoyed being annoyed would have made that prison much much
worse than it already was and we couldn't have that and we didn't have
that ever so Jake if you let someone annoy you you're allowing something that
shouldn't control you to control you you're letting it get inside your head
and I know you're young but that's no excuse you can't do that you have to
learn to ignore the little things that annoy you I promise you that there are
enough things in life that can go wrong big things important things that you'll
have to worry about so don't let these little things bother you just accept
them and shake them off think about something else and don't focus on little
things that annoy you but that don't really matter does that make sense to
you Jake and I said to the captain yes sir and I meant it I couldn't believe
what the captain had been through and I couldn't believe that he had this
amazing attitude I could see in him how strong you have
to be to stay calm and not let things annoy you it made me feel like I was a
giant wimp for letting little things bother
me and that was the first lesson that I learned from the captain and he taught
me much much more over the years and I'll tell you more about those lessons
later but this first lesson it was an important one and after that when I went
back to school and I heard Jonathan talk talk talk
talking in his annoying voice I just let it go
it wasn't a big deal anymore and I was strong enough to deal with it and that's
the lesson I learned I learned it from Jonathan but more I learned it from the
captain and to this day even as a grown man all these years later when some
little thing is bothering me or annoying me I think of how much worse things
could be and I just ignore that little thing and even if I can't ignore it I
just keep my thoughts to myself I keep it inside and I put a smile on my face
and I worry about bigger things in the world and you know what when you act
like things don't bother you eventually they don't so be strong and
don't let little things annoy you