Tic Toc...When I grow up

"Tic Toc!"
Said the clock,
as time flew out the window.
"Hours of seconds,
Many have passed.

Are you where you thought you'd be?"

When I was growing up, I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up.

I was probably in the third grade the first time an adult asked me “When you grow up, what do you want to be?”

I’m sure I got that blank oh-my-god-you-asked-me-a math-question look, shrugged and mumbled, “I dunno.”

That answer apparently wasn’t good enough because they pressed further, “Well, what about a policeman, a firefighter or an astronaut?

I’m sure at that point I nodded my head yes, and looked for an escape from this overly nosy big person.

Later in life, I would realize that I did NOT want to have a job where people might shoot at me, or flames might eat me, or someone might forget to send me back from space.

In High School I probably took some kind of career aptitude test or met with a career counselor, but I don’t remember it. Even if I did, back then I imagine the result of that effort would have been; “With your current aptitude and attitude your test results indicate your best career choice would be something along the lines of a ditch digger.”

At that time, the fast food industry had not taken off.

Upon graduating after 12 years of schooling, I was still clueless as to what I might want to be when I grew up. Hey, High school had a lot of distractions. They were called girls.

I do remember visiting Daytona Beach in Florida and saw a guy with a trailer renting bikes, mini bikes, rafts and chairs. He parked his rig right on the sandy beach, opened up some sides and was ready to go.

That, to me, looked like the greatest job ever: Sun, beach and bikinis...and just sitting around taking peoples money for renting fun.

Too bad I lived in Ohio at the time. In case you’ve never been, Ohio is not known for the quality of its beaches. And no, I do not consider the shores of Lake Erie a beach, no matter what the local commerce department might call it.

After high school, I considered being a truck driver. I was 19. You had to be 21. I couldn’t wait. I did a few not-to-exciting jobs and when the 70’s gas crisis hit and eliminated my job as a route driver, I decided it was time to get serious about a “career”.

At that time I liked to make scale models. Not car or ship models, but models of houses designed and built from scratch, I knew my math skills sucked, so being an architect was out. (Calculators were just starting to get smaller. Back then they were called adding machines)

I looked in the phone book for businesses that made models. Lo and behold, there actually were places that made models. I made some calls and found a place that seemed remotely opened to talking to me. I gathered up my high school drawings, (usually drawn in math class) packed up some models I had made and went for an interview.

It went pretty well. In fact they asked me if I could start next Monday?

Well....

So I came in next Monday. 

They handed me a broom and said, “Start in that corner”

I asked about the model making.

“Well, we don’t have any of those right now, but if we do, we’ll give you a shot.”

For the next 20 years or so, I learned the trade show custom exhibit building business...literally from the ground floor up.

It was an interesting, fast paced and ever changing job. Perfect for my short attention span and desire to create things. I was pretty darn good at it. There were people that were better than me doing certain jobs. There were people that were faster than me. But there were few people that were as good and fast as I was at MOST things.

A few swift kicks in the seat of the pants later, I found myself starting my own business. Something the third grader me could have never envisioned.

In fact, if someone had told me in high school that I would someday have my own business, I would have laughed in his or her face…for a very long time!

Even now, I am constantly amazed that I am running my own business building custom cabinets and things for others…even if it is a business of one person.

To this day when I hear that phrase “When I grow up...”

Well, as soon as I grow up, I’ll let you know.

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This was this weeks prompts:

  What did you want to be when growing up?