About Occupations And Dreams

[Neutron]

I read with great interest the question about our various occupations. So the following occurred to me. For those of us who have occupations,
Is it the occupation you originally dreamed about as a kid?
Why are you in your occupation?
If it is something you always dreamed about why did you do so?

I'll start. Originally I wanted to play in the NFL and play a long time. I worked my ass off at football. And payed the price with quite a few injuries. Especially knee injuries. When I finally got to college I turned down the Athletic scholarship and took an academic scholarship. Because I wanted to have my choice about classwork. I still played ball but on my terms. I Was NOT an Engineering major. I really had no interest in Engineering. I made All American in football two years in a row. Then after my junior year I decided I didn't like the college scene so I left. I ended up playing semi pro ball for two years. Then played two year with the Kansas City Chiefs. I finally decided I didn't want to play anymore agfter I had a vicious concussion. I went home, and coached football for two years then one day I saw an advertisement in Sports Illustrated. It was for the nuclear industry. They had a guy in front of a chalk board. There was a formula on the board and I intuitively knew what it mean. I mentioned it to my brother. He said You'd blow the place up. I laughed. About a year later I was looking for something in my parents garage. Saw this old magazine. Opened it and there was that same ad. I made some inquiries and found out the best way to become a nuke was via the Navy. So I went the Navy route and fell in love with it. I qualified on 4 different Naval reactors and even taught for 2 years. I got hurt and had to leave the Navy. I became a civilian nuke and worked my way up to a position that normally takes 18 to 20 years to get to. I did it in ten.
I LOVE my job. It's different everyday. I love machines, I love solving problems and I love the thrill of mastering something so powerful. I've been in the industry since 1984 (counting my naval time) and I've seen and or learned something new everyday. I go and come from work smiling everyday. Even when I work 80 hour weeks. I like the people, they're top quality and even though I rarely use my engineering degree ( I like Operating the plant better) I can use it to call bullshit on other engineers. I recently had a department made for me (I believe my main qualification is I'm stubborn). I like being a department head, but my previous position was better. I was in charge of a shift of operators. Now it's like the a Captain in the navy. Once he's promotoed out of command of a ship it's all downhill. But still a damn fun ride. Is it what I dreamed about as a kid? No it's not. Life takes strange turns. BUT is it everything I ever wanted? HELL YES.


Mike

 

[Biggles of 266]

I've spent my morning uncovering some dodgy dealings in the local government relating to my university and how they corruptly screw us students, I think I can safely say I'm living the dream 😎

 

[Strelnikov]

Not really...

I had a job similar to Neutron's in fossil/hydro power, but got the rug jerked out from under me (downsized.) My current job isn't very challenging, and I'm looking for something that suits me better. But retirement is in sight. I can sweat this one out if I have to.

Strelnikov

 

[siamese dream]

The first thing I wanted to be when I was a kid was an artist, or a ballerina. The ballerina thing I think is one of the typical girly childhood obsessions....I actually took ballet classes for a while, but it turned out not to be as much fun as I'd hoped... I ended up taking other dance/athletic type classes and I ended up liking those a lot better, my favorite was gymnastics, it was much more fun and playful than ballet, ballet is really serious and competitive. I still do stretches and stuff on my own that I learned in my gymnastics days, but I haven't done any dancing (except in clubs) or real gymnastics for a long time.

However, I always wanted to be an artist, ever since I could hold a pencil I was drawing. I still do my own art all the time, and I got paid for it a couple times, but mostly it is something I do on my own and don't get any money for. When I was in fourth or fifth grade, I realized how much I loved animated movies and had a dream of working on them someday. I still hope I get to do this, though I don't know very much about making an animated film, I still love them though.

Writing was something I got into when I was in junior high/high school, and I won some money from writing competitions when I was in high school, but since then I haven't got paid for any writing I've done. I'm trying to write a novel now and have ideas for several others... this is another thing I hope to be successful in, one day.

I've also always wanted to help people in some way, though I never really had any focus on what I wanted to do there. I started working with mentally retarded and physically handicapped adults two years ago, and that is what I've been doing for a living since. I started the job not knowing at all what to expect, I basically just needed a job and they were willing to hire me right away...I thought I might hate it. But I turned out to love it and now I'm very happy with my work and want to make a difference in the lives of m.r./d.d. people who live in state facilities... the system is messed up in a lot of ways and I'd love to be a part of changing it for the better.

I've been working since I was 16 and had several other jobs, including a waitress, legal secretary, telemarketing, and retail sales... I was never happy in any of these jobs. Working with the mentally retarded is the first job where I've felt satisfied with my work and completely content in what I do.
I also have several other dreams, I would love to study wildlife and photograph wildlife, or do photojournalism, teaching, acting, and writing movie scripts. I hope I get to do half the things I want to in my lifetime, but I'm still young and very ambitious, and I think I have the ability to realize a lot of my dreams. 🙂

Neutron, you were in the Chiefs???????? 😀 OMG!!!! That's "our" team!!!!!!! OMG there was once a ticklephile in the Chiefs!!! You learn something new every day 😉

 

[Neutron]

Yep..

I was a Strong Safety and sometime outside linebacker. I made it up to the end of training camp my first year. Then got cut because they didn't want to keep an extra strong safety. The next year, I made the team and played in a few games. One day in practice I was coming up to play a sweep, and got totally blindsided by a 300 pound behemoth moving at roughly the speed of sound. It knocked my cold. My upperback and neck was sore for three months afterwards from just this one hit and I had a constant headache. However I didn't let my NFL career last that long. As soon as I had my wits about me (this took about 3 days) I decided there was no way I was gonna risk my brians being scrambled for the sake of a game. I couldn;t imagine living life not being able to think.

My brother works with retarded people too. He loves it. He does very well with them and every now and then I like to visit the home he works in. The residents of the home call me Big Ga (Big Guy 🙂 )


Mike

 

[TicklingDuo]

Well, let's see....

In highschool, I thought I wanted to be a scientist. It was a toss-up between geology, volcanology and meteorology. So, I studied like mad and did well. But, I was told at every turn that I should persue something different since there wouldn't be much of a job market for those areas. Fine. So, I graduate with my real interest being shot down at every opportunity. What did I do? I decided to enter the job market and wait for college so I could think about which direction I wanted my studies to go.

I started out at a local furniture store doing filing and switchboard part time. I loved it. Though the work wasn't exactly fulfilling to me, it was a great group of people to work with. We had loads of fun. I was also doing a bit of home health care on the side.

After about a year, I switched over to work at an insurance company. The move was made only because it was more hours and money. I hated it from day one! It was a stifling environment in every way. The only bright spot was that the medical advisor (who happened to be the father of the female teacher who'd always tickled me in highschool...must run in the family) was always tickling me as he went past my desk.

After about two years, a friend who owned a religious goods store that I'd stop in a lot on my lunch hours asked if I'd come to work for her. She could only give me 30 hours. But, with the home care (which I'd kept weekends) on the side, it would give me enough. So, I happily left the insurance company and went to work for her. There wasn't a lot of business or work to do. So, much of our time was spent listening to demo tapes, gabbing with customers (many of them local pastors from various denominations) and reading. I even went and dug through the cellar one day to see what old stuff was laying around. I had projects for a few weeks as a result...fixing old rosaries and restoring a couple of danaged statues so they could be sold. It was a nice place to work.

During my time working there, an old itching began to return. After much struggle, I considered the possibility of entering the convent. I looked into it and persued it for a while, but never found a place that felt right for me. There wasn't a community out there that was living what I felt I wanted (and what I felt religious life was supposed to be about). Eventually, I gave up on that idea.

In the meantime, I'd gone back to school for a year, only to leave again because I couldn't get aid or loans to continue. I'd also decided that I should get some formal training if I was going to continue doing home health care. So, I took a leave from the store to take the training class for a local agency.

I stuck with the agency for three months to fulfill my obligation for the free training and then left. I'd have stuck with them. But, they tied your hands in caring for people. The final straw was getting written up for not following proper procedure when I returned to a client's apartment after calling an ambulance from downstairs (She wouldn't let me call when I was up there.). That wasn't what I got written up for, though. What I got written up for was entering the apartment to find her a code blue (as I'd suspected would happen) and doing CPR without first calling the office to get permission. Hello???!!! What a crock of shit that was! I save a woman's life and get written up for it.

After that whole fiasco and learning the desparity between what I was paid and what they charged clients for me to come, I decided to go out on my own. I'd always found clients in the past. Actually, they usually found me. I trusted that this would continue, which it did. From then (1986) on, I stuck with doing home care. Though I still felt that there was something more, I found it very fulfilling. And, doing it on my own meant me getting paid more and the clients paying only about a third of what the agency was charging. It was a win-win situation.

When I moved to CT to be with Drew a couple of years ago, I left all of that behind. My health had been going down hill just before the move and has continued since. So, aside from a few temp jobs and things I've done at home, I haven't worked much. If we had the mooney, I'd like to go back to school for computers. But, since we don't, I'm working to create my own business. It's slow getting started. But, I know the demand is out there. So, time should pay off within a few months. IN addition to that, I still get occassional requests to fix rosaries or restore statues. If the combination of things brings in enough, I may go back to school yet. But, as always, I do plenty of study on my own and don't let the fact that I can't afford formal classes stop me form continuing my education.

I'll be 40 in a couple of weeks and I haven't done what I expected to do. But, I have done most of what I WANTED to do as time has gone on. That's enough.

Ann

 

[qjakal]

Curveballs of Life...

I was destined to be a pharmacist. Much of my family is in the "hospital biz" in one field or another, and I always liked the pharmacy side of both my uncles store in a plaza as well as my Moms hospital pharmacy. Things were going along quite well in that direction...graduated with honors out of high school, had the SATs to go wherever I wanted (NOT the money..lol, but at least the marks)and a clear path laid out for the rest of my collegiate "life". I'd been working since I was about 12 years old at various jobs and saving for college/car etc. for that many years, so I figured if I worked about 25+ hours at some type of side job while at college I could swing tuition and Hamburger Helper until I got the degree. Sophmore year...yet another Chemistry class, and I realized this wasn't happening...I didn't have a "calling" for this career and wasn't going to be able to endure the rest of the required cirriculum, so I began seguing into a more general path...played with mathematics a bit, but decided I really was better suited to a general business path, with a bit of accounting thrown in as well. Left after 5 years and was immediately hired by PepsiCo and tossed into the Restaurant Division. That sucked...I had wanted to be in their Wilson Sporting Goods Division...always entertained thoughts of being a pro basketball player, and played 2 years of college ball at my division 3 school before the reality of being only 6' tall set in...lol. BUT, it would have been nice to remain in an "athletic" frame of mind within my new field. Wasn't to be though, and the pay at the Restaurant side as well as promotional opportunities was better, so I sucked it up and immersed myself in the corporate lifestyle. I advanced well in both position and salary, but didn't enjoy it as much as one might think...looooong hours, boring meetings and a generally inept corporate culture soured me within 10 years. We (my wife and I) began doing investment projects, mostly in real estate, buying and flipping distressed properties, keeping one a year for rental income and tax benefits and such, and eventually we decided to chuck the whole damn corporate world and start our own company, which at that time included purchasing a laundromat and a route as well. It all worked out very well...we remodeled and updated the laundromat, expanded and professionalized (is that a word?) the route and then bought some more businesses, most notably a banner towing biz featuring a 1941 biplane, which was hoot.....took on a partner and expanded some more, and we're now at the point where I'm doing other things every few years and thinking of retiring soon. This years project was starting up a string of ATM machines, and I'm currently involved with a group doing an internet MMO PC game development as well. It sounds like a lot, but it all just kind of flows along...lol. We've sold off the plane and a lot of businesses and are doing less each year. If the stock market hadn't tanked I'd probably be completely retired by now...but as it is that doesn't seem feasible after all thee years of hectic activity. I'm guessing we'll always be doing some type of business, just because it's enjoyable (most of the time) and overall gives you a sense of satisfaction at the end of the day. Definitely NOT what I thought I'd be doing though.... Q

 

[Neutron]

What Does It For Me..

Well one thing. Operating a nuke plant is like being handed the keys to your daddies 5.2 billion dollar Lincoln 🙂 I still can't believe I get to operate such an impressive machine, AND THEY ACTUALLY PAY ME FOR IT.
I also like solvng problems others can't solve. And the thrill of seeing a plan come together.
I also like being in a position where doing the right thing is possible. I'm not a corporate shill. Of all the awards I've won in my job, the best thing I ever got was a kiss from an older lady. In her 50s. When I hired in as a new operator there was a maintenance guy who was an older American Indian. I won't mention his name. I always enjoyed him and many times on boring nightshifts I'd hook up with him at lunch and talk life. This was just an excellent guy. I moved into supervision. D loved fixing instrumentation so he stayed in the Union as an Instrument Tech. I soon moved into Management but every now and then I'd see D. We'd talk, he'd always congratulate me on my promotions and I'd ask about his family.
A few months ago D was diagnosed with emphysema. I found this out when I asked where D had been. His management fucked up because they cut in corporate legal as to whether they could retire D. It turns out D was about 6 months short of retirement because his first 3 years at my company didn't count because he as a contractor. His management wouldn't go to bat for him. I felt this was morally wrong, and voiced my opinion to his department. They said they didn't want to get tough with corporate over it. So I said transfer him to me, I'll find him a job he can do, and nO unuin guys will bitch about preferential treatment. They laughed and asked if I realized how little D could do. I told them I didn't care, if transfered that would be MY problem, not theirs. I felt by hook or by crook D was gonna retire. AND get his full retirement. I managed to get him something he could do for about 12 hours a week. While I handled his pay records so it looked like he was working 40. I guess I could have gotten fired. Anyways D finally got his hours. In this whole time I hadn't seen D. I did know he couldn't have a retirement party, because I had heard of his condition. It wasn't good. But I did get a nurse to agree to watch D if I arranged a 2 hour get together. It took me two weeks but I found virtually everyone who had worked with D over the years and got them to agree to come to our area and see D at the get together. Over 600 people showed up.
D was in a wheel chair, only weighs about 75 pounds, and is using s respirator. But to see his face when he was wheeled in was worth a lifetime of anything else I've ever been in. D now has a nice retirement, and a book full of memories with pictures and little paragraphs from well wishers. I doubt he's going to live another 6 months, but his wife won't have to worry about money when he's gone.
Oh the kiss, I only had about 15 minutes to spend at Daves get together. I had to cancel meetings to get there, his wife, a woman I never met approached me at the party and asked if I was Bam Bam. I said yeah. She gave me a big hug and kiss on the cheek and said she and Dave knew what I had done, and what it could have cost me if it was ever found out, and in her mind I was their hero.

And ya know, I have no idea why I even posted this except to maybe point out that all rewards are not material.


Tron

 

[desdemona]

An intriguing counterpart to the earlier question...I went through stages as a kid of wanting to be just about anything. But by age 10, I had it narrowed down to the veterinary field. I remember volunteering at a local clinic and doing interviews of veterinarians for school. Most of all, I remember my aunt showing me how kindness and caring for animals was very rewarding. High school was no sweat and teachers were encouraging. Statistically, more women began entering the field in the 1990's, so it was even becoming more accepted. In undergrad, the funniest and most annoying question people would ask was "why don't you want to be a real doctor?" Second only to my favorite question, "why? don't you like people?" Funny thing about animals. Most of them come with an owner...normally, a fellow human being. Strange how some never comprehend that fact.

Anyway, undergrad was challenging at times. I think I re-considered things once (organic chemistry was he**). I thought about becoming a music teacher. But I still thought it was within my reach. Sooooo...I did apply and was accepted to vet school. It's a very scary thing. The numbers are never encouraging (500 applicants, 60 spots). But the end result, I'm pleased to say, was graduation in 1997 from Purdue University. Great school, though not high in the ranks of the Big 10. I had hoped to pursue at least a two year stint in the Peace Corps, but due to financial obligations and health issues, it wasn't meant to be. That's the only disappointment in this quest. Ultimately, I entered the work force as an associate veterinarian (which I still am, albeit at my third practice). In the long run, I hope to one day buy in to my present place of employment, or start my own practice elsewhere. Time will tell. But I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to fulfill my dream, and everyday I tell myself I'm lucky to be doing what I do and what I love. Peace...Des