MinnieM123
Premium Member
I can't wait to know what I'm going to be when I grow up. I never did. I fought with myself internally for many years because it is hard to succeed when you don't really know what you can do or what you can do exceptionally well. I had numerous little part time jobs when in High School. I had worked with my father with trucks, worked at gas stations, stock clerk in a local grocery. You know the regular teen stuff.
When I went to college I didn't have a lot of free time. I had a car and insurance I was paying for via my parents and they were tougher on late payments then any bank ever thought of being. But I did have a part time job driving a delivery van with supplies to Doctors offices and hospitals. My major in college was Business Management. I graduated from college on June 3, 1968 and on June 4th I was on my way to Amarillo, Texas for U.S. Air Force basic training. After what seemed like years, Basic ended and I went to Lowry AFB in Denver, Co. for training in inventory and supply. I was sent to Niagara Falls International Airport to the small Air Force Base there. That wasn't bad duty, but did cause me to overdo on the Boone's Farm selection of fine wines. After only a few months I got my orders to Bien Hoa AFB, So. Vietnam. That year cannot be described. I caught a break on my return by being stationed in St. Albans, Vt. which was about 22 miles from my actual home. I finished off my 4 year military service there and just before I was discharged I got married.
From that point on it has been a mix of many things. First Retail Store Manager (Ben Franklin Store), Publishing and Printing company eventually becoming General Manager and Vice President, Left that when I purchased with my wife, a Residential Care Home. Housing Physically and Mentally Challenged plus some elderly. Learned a lot about health care and meal planning and dealing with people with problems. Due to changes in the philosophy of the mental health unit in our town they decided that people shouldn't be in a "home" of sorts, but in private apartments fending for themselves. Understandable but it took away most of my clients so I had to close it down.
Then came a huge assortment of things, not necessarily in the order. Worked on the clean room line in IBM, Was office manager of an Earth Moving Company, Got my Real Estate Sales license, just as the Real Estate business dropped to almost nothing. Back Briefly to IBM, A short tenure working as a travel agent before the owners were arrested for something, then to a large Industrial Construction Company as an accounts payable and contract monitor on assigned jobs, Worked part time for a local school district processing and managing payroll and benefits for the school district. Got divorced somewhere in that mess and decided to be a tour bus driver. I trained for that and got my Commercial Drivers License. That was on Sept. 8, 2001. On September 11th some bad stuff happened that shutdown touring for almost two years. While waiting I accepted a job with our local Bus Company driving routes in the city for about three years and was offered a job there in management until I retired in 2010. Since then I have been working on and off, but mostly off.
Sorry for the length of this, but I got carried away once I started, I tend to do that a lot. However, you can see that one can get through life without a specific career in mind. Probably not wealthy from it, and certainly tired from relearning different careers every few years. But I tended to get bored and the need to change often. I think the ones that I might have fallen into easily are the ones that, due to no fault of my own, were cut short by economic and personal reasons. At least now I have time to fret over what ever pain I wake up with.
My goodness, you were busy! You're a survivor, and that's a bragging rights career right there!