My Life Since High School (844 hits)
Category: GeneralRating: 0.56 on 12 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by <When Gnomes Run Amuck> (View user info) at 2005-03-22 15:08:45 EST
High School Graduation.
Now what?
Well, this is the time when you're supposed to have a plan for yourself and start walking towards the rest of your life. However, at this point, chances are, you've never done anything on your own not related to school of family. Having no life experience makes the whole decision about what to do with the rest of your life a little difficult methinks.
But this is what typically happens.
Me, i did what i thought i was supposed to do. Something that would open a lot of doors and something that might not be available to me if i didn't go right away. I went to university. Well, for one year anyway. Turns out that i missed a whole month of class (straight) in the first semester and lots more during the second semester yet still managed to pass. Not only pass, but i didn't even get put on academic probation like others i know.
Socially, i didn't have a lot of money and therefore couldn't afford to drink much. Gone were all my dreams of having a great time in university dorms that were perpetual parties day and night. At least i wasn't living off of cat fool like one of my neighbours (who claimed it really didn't taste that bad, and it was cheap). Overall, socially, i had some pretty good times here and there and will always remember them and the people that i met and got to know there. Some of them i still visit once in a while.
Based on this experience i realized that university is a joke and merely a set of proverbial hoops to jump through to get you in the door somewhere after you finish your degree so that you can sit at a desk and collect your easy paycheck. Any idiot that works hard enough and takes enough time can get a degree. So based on this realization i made an executive decision: i was going to quit university.
So i did. I quit school and got a job moving furniture at 19. Not the first time i'd worked
for this family friend so it was familiar and paid cash. That lasted a few weeks until i broke-up with my girlfriend and my best friend at the time decided to move to Calgary to be with this girl he met on the internet. So i did what any reasonable person would do, i moved to Calgary with him.
Actually, i moved down about 2 weeks before he did, about 36 hours after he asked me if i wanted to go with him. I moved in with the girl, her brother, her mom and about 10,000 cats. All of whom i'd never met before in my life. Two weeks later he showed up and the 3 of us got our own place (next door).
That lasted 3 months. The woman turned out to be the devil and i couldn't stand to watch her slowly consume the soul of a friend of mine so i moved to the other end of town with a few other people i knew in town. He stayed behind because (apparently) he actually liked having his soul consumed. They're still together and have children. Interesting guy.
One of the people i moved in with was another she-devil. She was introduced to me by another friend (long story, don't want to get into that one). However, she had boobs so i didn't notice the stench of evil until part of my soul had already been consumed. My bad. And i hurt a friend in the process because of my blindness. The only part that really still bothers me about that whole ordeal.
Moving on.
So after living in Calgary for 6 months and having numerous crappy jobs that i hated (painter, landscaper, windshield salesman, painter again, life insurance/mutual fund salesmen, pizza delivery driver) over the course of those 6 months, i decided that a little piece of paper that could get me in the door of a cushy job didn't sound so bad after all.
I still don't like degrees. I think job interviews should be dual-to-the-death type situations where you have to display your prowess instead of just showing a piece of paper that you earned. For someone to have earned that piece of paper in 3 years working his ass off because he couldn't afford to take longer to get the same piece of paper as someone who took 6 years taking only 3 classes per semester because they can't handle more than 3 classes..... well clearly that just makes the whole system crap.
So i went for the intensive 2-year tech diploma instead. Worked out well, so far. I moved in with my girlfriend from school.... in the San Francisco Bay area. See, she got a job down there and i got a job as a 'Field Engineer' so i was always travelling. In my mind it made sense to move in because i'd be spending all my free time over there anyway, right? Live and learn. That was FAR too early to be moving in with anyone and the relationship suffered because of it.
Details.
I ended up quitting my travelling job of 12 weeks, of which i spent 8 in Hawaii, and moved to the Bay area full-time and got a job there. The work visa took 4 months to get and i had enough money to survive for.... uh-oh. Well isn't this interesting, i only have enough money for a month or so. So the ego took a huge blow and i was being supported by my girlfriend of 7 months (at the time) until my job started. Good part about it was that the job was an Engineering position in product development, and i only had a diploma.
Three months after getting that job the big tech-stock crash happened and there were engineers all over looking for work. Had that happened a few months earlier i'd have never got that job. But they kept me. They hired me on at a pretty low rate to start with but i was just happy to have the chance to get the experience. When they realized that i was actually doing not such a bad job for someone with only a diploma they gave me a raise.
Let me just stop here and put this in perspective.
22 years old.
Engineering job with a diploma.
Trying to pay the girlfriend back for supporting me for the last 3 months.
Ok. Now that we're all clear on that maybe you'll appreciate the next story detail. The raise was for 24%, $10000, just 4 months after i accepted the job for more than i expected in the first place.
I was stunned.
The relationship started going south. The job became more stressful because i had no peace at home so i couldn't unwind at the end of the day and i started to get stressed. Ended up having a couple of anxiety attacks before i knew what they were and calling in sick quite often when i was just too stressed to be able to deal with the idea of going in to work that day.
I made the decision to move back to Vancouver after about 2 years in the Bay area. I flew up for an interview one weekend and shortly after that i got the job, which was lucky because i'd quit the job i had without knowing what was going to happen when i got back to Vancouver.
The position i got, and presently fill, is that of a Technologist. Which is handy because that's what my diploma says i am. By comparison to all other jobs listed above, this is the easiest job i've ever had. Initially i took a 63% pay-cut when accepting this job, but that's improved a fair bit since. I now own my own place, a union job and things just look a lot different when you eliminate stress from your life.
Now, this was just an outline so i wouldn't forget the timeline of things. There's huge gaps that i might fill in one day but for now i'm just happy to have this done. It's something i've been thinking about for quite a while now and after seeing a friend of mine recount his Russian adventures here i though it made a lot of sense.
User Reviews
Submitted by Rads_wife (user info) at 2005-06-13 23:33:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
http://www.ubersite.com/m/68315
WINNER!!! WINNER!!!
Submitted by TheSpook (user info) at 2005-03-31 13:10:27 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
Christ, I'm 24 and you've done a hell of a lot more than me.
I need to get the fuck out of here.
Submitted by cowstastegood (user info) at 2005-03-31 12:58:29 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by reallybored (user info) at 2005-03-22 16:27:35 (#)
Ranking: -2
Submitted by Gnome (user info) at 2005-03-22 16:17:45 (#)
Ranking: 0
i'm not asking anyone to care jackass. this is more just so i don't forget.
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Next time you feel the need to document your life I suggest you visit livejournal.com and don't pollute uber.
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Don't pollute uber? 99% of the stuff on this site is crap, its way worse than this. This isn't a spectacular post but its hardly -2 material either.
Submitted by reallybored (user info) at 2005-03-22 16:27:35 EST (#)
Ranking: -2
Submitted by Gnome (user info) at 2005-03-22 16:17:45 (#)
Ranking: 0
i'm not asking anyone to care jackass. this is more just so i don't forget.
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Next time you feel the need to document your life I suggest you visit livejournal.com and don't pollute uber.
Submitted by Gnome (user info) at 2005-03-22 16:20:12 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
aaahhhhhh yes, cindy. i have met the devil on more than one occasion. she always looks different, and sometimes it takes me a while, but i always recognize her in the end.
Submitted by Gnome (user info) at 2005-03-22 16:17:45 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
i'm not asking anyone to care jackass. this is more just so i don't forget.
Submitted by jwlmar10 (user info) at 2005-03-22 16:13:24 EST (#)
Ranking: -2
Nobody cares.
Submitted by c1ndy (user info) at 2005-03-22 16:03:28 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
you have met a few devils and evil people then
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2005-03-22 15:20:23 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
and then Mabel says to me, she says...
Submitted by nrduncan (user info) at 2005-03-22 15:17:52 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Jeanneee (user info) at 2005-03-22 15:12:57 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
I like your user name A LOT.
Submitted by reallybored (user info) at 2005-03-22 15:11:34 EST (#)
Ranking: -2
Nobody cares about your life.
Go back to playing WoW.