Sorry for the missed week. I was fighting an illness and didn’t feel my brain was working well enough to write something coherent. I’m back this week to continue my original timeline and talk about the time of my Junior year and the summer leading up to it. This was a little bit of a strange transition year for me and the family.
Dad had quit his job as Maintenance Director out at the Conference Center due to “political reasons,” and began working at Ripon College in their Maintenance Department. Without a license or a family member out there on a regular basis, that would have made it difficult for me to continue working there myself. Plus, I was looking for more of a year-round employment instead of just a seasonal three to four-month stint.
So, a decision was made for me to get a job at McDonald’s in Ripon. Over the summer I would take any shift and any job they asked me to do. I had a goal to reach. At that time, I still wanted to go to culinary school and knew I was going to need money to make that happen. I was constantly being scolded for being on overtime to which I simply reminded them that they called me in to cover those shifts. Heck, I’d even be the one who came in on his day off to mow the lawn. Seventy-five to eighty percent of every paycheck went into my savings account with the remainder being for fun.
Working that many hours, and not having a driver’s license at the time severely hampered my ability to have fun though. I still would manage to walk uptown on the weekend nights I wasn’t working and hang out with friends. Usually hitching a ride with them to cruise around and listen to music. The nights would normally end with us heading down to Country Kitchen, Hardee’s, or of course McDonald’s to eat. Occasionally this would lead to me jumping back into the grill area and cooking our food as it was close to closing and I knew what a pain it was when you are trying to get everything done for closing and someone comes in.
I worked with some interesting characters there as well. The managers all had very different personalities. Everyone’s favorite was a female who primarily opened. She’d go from manager to Mom to friend in quick progression. She did her job well, took care of her flock, and ripped on them mercilessly when they did something dumb. There was the confidant and slightly arrogant store manager who seemed really nice, but something about him made you question his motives. The assistant store manager who felt he was better than everyone and that he should be store manage already. There was no pleasing that guy. Your crew could set a record for quickest average drive thru times for a shift and he’d complain you wasted two more cheeseburgers than yesterday.
I spent almost five years working there, so I’ll have a few more stories at time progresses here including the acquisition of my nickname. But that’s further down the pipe. As far as my first year goes, that is pretty much it. I worked hard and as much as possible. So, let’s get back to school.
Junior year for me was a pretty uneventful one, but one that would also change my direction in life. As I chose to focus on work, sports were pretty much dropped all together. After taking typing and realizing how important computers were going to be going forward, I decided to take word and data processing classes as well as computer programming classes. At the time, this was Basic and Pascal programming languages. I seemed to take to it rather quickly, however programming was a bit too boring for me. Far too much work for such little return.
Then came career week. They had speakers come in and talk to classes about what they did for a living to see if there was any interest. I was a bit excited to hear a chef was coming to talk. Unfortunately, he was very underwhelming. I didn’t feel he wanted to be there. I asked him questions on his schooling and he told me he had gone to a Culinary School in Chicago and graduated near the top of his class. He then went on to tell us he was working at Old Country Buffet.
That was not what I expected. I’m not sure what I expected, but when you have spent several years focused on what you wanted to be when you grew up, you have a certain image in you head. You don’t think about for every five-star chef in a fine dining establishment, there are thousands of chefs running buffets. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with that, but my dream was to make new and innovative dishes, not meatloaf and fried chicken every day for the rest of my life. Doubt began to set in. I started questioning my own dreams. I didn’t know what I wanted anymore.
Then I heard a guy speak about being a Computer Engineer. He had a two-year Associate Degree. He got hired within a month of graduation. He worked in Milwaukee. He was making six figures. I was sold. Less school, more money, an industry that was growing in leaps and bounds, and still something I was interested in. I had my new career path. Although, mine would not quite follow the same path as his as we will learn in later installments.
Outside of this, school progressed at a fairly gradual pace the rest of the year. Just normal stuff. Walking the halls in the morning. Taking all of study hall to collect attendance sheets. Boombox in my locker playing Metallica and Megadeth on a regular basis. Skipping school to go to concerts or to just go fishing with friends. Normal stuff.
I know this is a very short one, even though I missed last week, but not much happened this year in my life. The next installment is going to be a tough one. I’m not looking forward to typing it up, but I owe it to myself as well as you guys to put it out there. I’m probably going to start writing it tomorrow just because I feel I will need to re-read it about a hundred times to make sure it fully conveys what I need to say before posting it.
Stay strong my friends, and Covid is no joke. It sucks.
We’re all in this together, Luv luv.