Expert

"Be the expert of yourself." The professor always said the five words slowly, each measured by a thoughtful pause. She made the point often, like a defiant lesson for life. Ignore it at your peril was what the tenured  philosophy professor meant.

Bernard recalled the statement. He remembered how dreary and cumbersome college became, and his life sunk to a busy depression of classes, study, and disinterest. Family would have to understand at their own pace, or not at all. Bernard knew he made the right decision, with a lifetime to collect degrees and careers. 

This just wasn't his time to sit in classrooms of restlessness and marginal passion--instead, he had to go where his mind pointed, no matter the destinations unknown.