what does this song mean to you

This song means the world to me as of last night when I thought about the lyrics in depth.
My 2nd breakdown and loss of my marriage happened when I chose to go back and finish my masters. The only reason I wanted to finish it was so that I wouldn't have to LIE on my resume and pretend I had attended my workplace continuously for ten years when in reality i had taken one year for unsuccessful study leave.

So I didn't want to lie. No one would have noticed if I did. I would have gotten away with it and I would have been able to keep my marriage and my sanity. (And none of you would have met me by the way).

But to keep my integrity I chose to finish my masters. I was always going to break down regardless of where I studied as I was on a weak medication at the time - Seroquel.

So I broke down but through sheer will power graduated from my studies while being extremely unwell.

Today on my resume I actually don't overtly disclose that I took two years of leaves of absences to study. But I do list the masters degree and the date so you should be able to tell I took time off to study. A bit dodgy but not really. At one point I did list my two leaves of absences one employer asked about it and hired me anyway. So I figured who cares and took it off.

Where am I going with all of this.

I would rather be a man of integrity who didn't outright lie on his resume than be happily married and living with his wife. That wife by the way is not healthy and has leukemia and other grave illnesses so that path with her would not have been all balloons and roses.

I am also in a much more satisifying job than I could have had in my old life. I also have spent the past ten years reunited with my mother after living apart from her for twenty years. She is delighted and now depends on me quite a bit.

I want to conclude with two thoughts,

I have lived life MY WAY like the song says. And that is why it is a marvellous song. It allows you to feel proud of your decisions.

Secondly about every 3 years on MT David would post a thread entitled "do things always turn out for the best?" My answer was always they haven't worked out for me so far David but perhaps in the fullness of time they will. I am starting for the first time to entertain the idea that things will work out for the best.

Not any time soon but when the scales are finally weighed up.

Thanks Keith.

Firstly I welcome you sharing this song for it took me back to when I was in my  mid twenties 
a time of  optimism and change for the better.

Secondly Frank Sinatra is one of my all time favorite singers.
.
And yes, it was so popular that it was in the charts here  in the UK consecutively  for seventy five weeks.

However, that was forty years plus ago  and the only times I hear it over the last couple of decades
or so . It is played  triggered by   those who are usually  fueled by alcohol.... 
to justify thier their negative behavior towards the criticism of others affected by our decisions over time
by doing it 'my way'.

In conclusion I do not dislike the singer or the music but the lyrics overtime have become implicit
in dressing up  wrong doing due to  possible duplicity in one form or another...
as an endorser/ glorification of past events 
that should  be savored for prosperity!

In the short term not perhaps but yes in the long term. Everyone makes unique decisions but their stupid decisions are offset by incredibly insightful decisions that only they could have made.

When a new cricket captain takes over our team I take him aside and say to him, don't listen to advice, just do it your way. Sometimes you will be wrong, but that will be offset by the hunches you play that only you had an insight about. If you listen to advice then it is the worst of all words, you make average decisions all the time and no outstanding decisions.

As for your feedback David. Fine. I accept your examples. It sounds like you have met all sorts in your life, and if some gnarly individuals justified abusive or spiteful outward behaviour because it was "their way" then that is inexcusable. I am reminded by my favourite saying "every construct or guideline breaks down with extreme use cases". So doing it my way is the correct thing to do for 95% of people just that it doesn't hold in all cases when you think of extreme examples and extreme people.

Memorise that one David let me pass on that thought to you as a gift just as it was given to me two years ago
"All theories and guidelines only hold under normal parameters and break down under extreme examples"
Thus we must have many guidelines at our disposal even some that contradict each other.

Wasn't expecting to go so deep but you went there with me!!!!

Which brings us to Godwin's law.

All theoretical discussions end up with hitler or the nazis

I am just razzing you Keith