I’ve been working continuously since 1968 when I was 16-years old; that is 41 years and counting. I’ve worked in a restaurant, a factory, a college physical plant, a computing center, and in three offices. I’ve washed dishes, mopped floors, cleaned up vomit, hauled out garbage, shoveled mountains of corn, shoveled rock sulfur into a furnace, moved 50-pound bags of starch onto pallets, rolled 50-gallon drums of corn syrup onto railroad cars, driven fork-lifts and a 2-ton truck.
On the way home from one of my manual labor jobs during my college days I stopped by an office at school to see if they had a job opening. They never did, but I stopped in anyway, week after week, sometimes multiple times in a week, just to see if they had a job. My persistence resulted in a part-time job during the school year as they eventually hired me as a nighttime computer operator. Later on I became a programming tutor, again, at night and during the school year. By my senior year I was working 20 hours a week, carrying a full academic load majoring in both Math and Physics, and was a varsity athlete in track and cross country.
I eventually got a summer job in that college office. When everyone else went home for the day, I stayed for an extra hour to vacuum, empty the trash, and dust. I was happy to get an extra hour’s work and an extra hour’s pay I could put toward tuition.
I worked summers, Christmas break, and spring break. When I wasn’t in school, I was working. When I wasn’t working, I was in school. Eventually I was working while I was in school. I graduated from college in 1974. I graduated on a Saturday and I started my first “real” job on Monday, two days later. I was thrilled to be making $7,600 per year as a computer programmer.
Anyway, here I am 41 years later, with job responsibilities and dilemmas my 16-year old self could never imagine, working my butt off day after week after month after year after decades with nary a break. And I am thinking to myself, “I need a vacation.”
A decade or two might be enough.
Well TJ
ReplyDeleteIf you two are through shedding winter viruses...y'all need to give your wife a good long hug every morning and night going/coming from work. No one is looking...REALLY!
UBill