Which Way Did He Go?

My career path, if viewed from the air, would kind of look like a snake.  That image might bring to mind something stealthy and aggressive and poised to attack its next meal. 

That isn’t my snake.  My snake is the one off by itself, its head meeting its body coming and going.  My snake has been lucky enough to have a rodent wander into its mouth often enough to keep it alive and moving.  But, my snake is easily distracted.

I started out with lots of ideals and goals.  I jumped straight into college after I graduated high school.  My plan was to get a Bachelor’s degree and then enter graduate school.  PhD, here I come!!!   Psychology was going to be my life.

“The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry,” it’s been said. 

 

I was no different.  At the end of my third year of college, some problems arose.  First, I was burned out.  Second, I was living with my father after my parents divorced.  He thought I was wasting my time with school.  In his day, you went and found a factory to work in and you did it until you retired.  It worked for him.  Our relationship went through a bit of a rough patch, to put it mildly.  It was becoming more and more obvious that if I didn’t get out and get my own place, things were going to keep going south.  Since I was looking at another five years of school, at minimum, I decided to take a break, with the intention of going back to finish at least my BS degree one day.  Best-laid plans, again.

 

I had been working part time jobs since I was 16 years old.  I worked part time the whole time I was in college.  I worked in fast food, a grocery store, and then at the college I was attending. 

 

But a full time gig was something different altogether, and not easy to come by when you’re a young, fresh college dropout. 

 

My meandering career path started out with office jobs and data entry jobs.  I had a job in a hospital IT department.  From there, I did a stint as a security guard, worked in a greasy auto repair shop, went to a car dealership and actually lasted five years.  Then I was back to fast food.  After that, I gained better focus, apparently.  I worked at the next company for ten years and now I’m still in the same business, but with a different company.  What’s next?  Who knows?

 

One of my favorite bosses I ever had was at the college I worked for and attended classes.  We were sitting in his office one day and he told me straight up that I was never going to make it in the business world.  I asked why.  He said because I didn’t kiss enough ass.  I took this as a compliment, which was really not how it was intended.  I know he was trying to be helpful and gave me some advice.  But at the time, I planned on getting my PhD, hanging out a shingle, and being my own boss.  So it was in one ear and out the other with his advice throughout the time I worked for him.  I still remember his prediction, even though it’s been 20+ years since we had the conversation.  He was a smart man.  But of course, I thought I was smarter.

 

Most of my jobs in the beginning didn’t last more than a year or two.  Conflict seemed to follow me everywhere.  I don’t take full blame though.  I truly did work for some nasty individuals.  My biggest problem was it took me working for several of them before I realized that it didn’t matter where you work, there was always going to be people like that, and chances were damn good they were going to be in charge. 

 

So I slowly adapted.  I never learned to kiss ass.  I never needed to.  I had other ways of accomplishing the same thing, essentially.  Basically that boils down to hard work and earning respect.  It doesn’t work with every manager in the world.  I have been fired, so I can prove that to be true.  But overall, it’s worked for me.

I used to be embarrassed by my tangled and twisted career snake.  I felt like I failed myself by dropping out of college and not sticking to my original plan.

But I look at things differently now. 

From a career standpoint, I am proud now of the fact that I’ve gone into jobs that I had no idea how to do, and I was able to learn and succeed and get promoted.   It has given me a level of confidence in my abilities that I might not have had otherwise.

From a life standpoint, had I not taken the paths I did, there are so many things I would have missed out on, so many friends that would not have entered my life.  So many life lessons I would have taken longer to learn or might never have learned at all if I hadn’t been where I was. 

It wasn’t always easy and many times I thought I had screwed up my life.  But it was all important to make me who I am.

I just hope my snake keeps getting enough food to keep on moving.  I don’t even mind which direction he goes.