Surviving Failure
My first year of college was probably one of the most difficult times in my life. As desperate as I was to leave my parents and find my own way in the world, I had some trouble adjusting to living away from home. I met a few really cool folks that first year, and they are still friendships I value today. However, I’ll be the first to admit that I was really lost academically.
Studying and I never really got along, and even though I always grasped concepts during lectures and understood them, my recall was terrible at test time. Over the course of those first two semesters I dropped an english composition class (twice) before I had a chance to fail it. I missed my health final, and despite convincing the instructor to let me take it anyway, I failed the course. The rest of my grades were unremarkable.
I knew very well that I would need to take summer classes to make up for my shortcomings in the first year. There was no way I would ask my parents to foot the bill for that since it was my mistake that caused me to be three classes behind. I was going to need a job.
I’m Famous in Canada
Yesterday, during the SOPA Wikipedia blackout, I posted a funny tweet following the #FactsWithoutWikipedia hashtag that trended across Twitter. Apparently, someone in Toronto thought it was funny because later in the day, I got a tweet from someone saying my contribution to #FactsWithoutWikipedia had been published in a Toronto Star article.
I won’t repost the whole thing here, but below is an excerpt.
From The Toronto Star website:
Top 15 fake facts without Wikipedia
What to do when Wikipedia blacks out for 24 hours? Make up your own facts, of course.
Twitter has been furiously updating with users’ sarcastic, silly, and sometimes seemingly real fake facts — using hashtags like #factswithoutwikipedia and #daywithoutwikipedia — while the English-language website is down in protest against anti-piracy law.
Here is a look at our Top 15 favourites:
*SNIP*
- Rock band Rush predicted the end of civilization when their Canadian calendar only went up to 2112. (From @BradKimberly)
Believe it or not, I had to explain this joke to my wife. I guess she’s not a Rush fan.
Young Love and “Alien 3″
When I was in high school, I got a job at the local movie theater during my junior year. It was a pretty sweet deal. They would pay me $4.25 an hour, and I would come home smelling like popcorn… ALL THE TIME!
It was a Cinemark theater, and I had to wear green fluorescent suspenders over a white dress shirt, matching green bow tie (a fake, of course), and black pants. When I worked concession, which everybody does at first, I had to wear a heavy plastic apron that felt like linoleum. Covering the apron was a bunch of Cinemark artwork featuring Front Row Joe. Follow the link… you’ll be sad you did.
I had my first girlfriend in my junior year. Our first date was to go see “Wayne’s World” (Excellent). That petered out somewhere around “the day after prom.” I was pretty down about it, but at least I was making massive bank at the Cinemark. You know, $4.25 in 1992 is about $35 in 2012 currency.
Summer is the busy season at the movies, and 1992 was no different. College folks were coming back home, and some of them would come to work at the theater. That’s when I met Julie Byars. We both worked in the concession, and, like me, she was lured to the Cinemark with the prospect of $4.25 an hour and free movie passes.
There was something about this college girl, who had just finished her first year, that struck me as awesome. To this day, I can’t tell you what it was, but I was clearly smitten. I had never blown off curfew for any reason whatsoever. That’s mostly due to how hum-drum things were back then for me. For her, though, I willingly blew off curfew three times. Sorry, mom. Read more…
Catching up…
So, it’s been nearly a year and a half since I last posted a blog entry. I should feel a little guilty about this, but I really don’t.
To catch you up, I did end up moving to Washington, D.C. to accept a prestigious job with the government. It was a pretty decent job with a good amount of stress involved. When you work at that high a level in the government, things that should be easy to do become monumentally difficult to accomplish. I’m not sure why this is, but something as simple as adding content to a website shouldn’t require fifteen planning meetings and concurrence from everyone from the janitor to the President of the United States.
Still, it was a great job, and I made lots of friends in the DC area. Unfortunately, I had to leave the job. My wife has a job that was looking at some business in the Atlanta area. She volunteered to move to Atlanta to pursue those goals for the company. We have family here, and the cost of living is much much lower than DC. So, I gave up my job in order for her to transfer down here.
She works out of the house now, and I am focused full-time on my cruise travel agency. It’s called The Cruise Hunters, and we have the best cruise deals. I’m still looking for public relations work in the Atlanta area, and I’m regularly applying to things. Money is okay, but I would feel a lot more comfy with a regular source of income. The travel business is good to me, but commissions can be sporadic depending on the supplier.
So, I’m living in Marietta now, and spending lots of time on Twitter. I hope to continue updating this site.
Job Hunt
Almost immediately after deciding to quit the Air Force, my attention turned to finding a job to replace it.
My first decision was whether or not I should continue to work for the government. My only other options would be to work for corporate America again or go into business for myself.
I’ve worked for corporate America before (thanks to CNN and Paramount). I currently run a travel agency but not to the levels of being independent.
So, I decided I would go ahead and try to find a government job. The second decison? What kind of job should I get?
I’ve been doing public relations for nearly six years now, which is quite different from the television and radio production I did for the decade prior. Still, I’ve been able to integrate some of that broadcast experience into my public relations experience to help further my efforts in communicating the Air Force story.
I thought that my best efforts at finding a job would be to search for another public relations position. The trick in a tough job market is to not be so picky. The jobs are out there, but you can’t insist on only accepting a position in the town you live in. If I did that, I would be unemployed for years. A wise professor once told me that you have to go where the jobs are. Not bad advice.
I use USAJobs to search for these PR jobs in government. If there’s one thing the government needs is a good communicator. Every now and then, I see some bonehead in PR get in front of a camera and try to make some sort of excuses about something instead of handling issues the right way. I’m looking at you, BP. Obviously, the government is guilty of this, too.
Anyway, I would like to continue being one of those boneheads. It pays well.
So, I’m really close to locking in one job, and should I get that offer letter in my hand, I’ll be moving to Washington, D.C. in mid-August.
More to come…
Punching Out
When you’re in the Air Force, there comes a time when you have to think about punching out. There are many meanings to “punching out,” but there are only two that matter.
The first is illustrated in this photo. In 2003, the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds lost a jet at a Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho air show. The pilot ejected, or punched out, safely less than two-tenths of a second before the plane hit the ground. In fact, this photo is the first ever taken of a real-world ejection.
The second type of punching out is when you decide to leave the Air Force. The analogy is as if you were the pilot (you) abruptly leaving the plane (the Air Force) before its scheduled landing (retirement).
No doubt, my punching out is the second type.
