Careers

9/4/2012

Careers

I type for a living and have since 1968 - you do the math - that's a long time.  Still love typing and always will, just don't get enough chances to do so anymore.  Gone are the days of hours and hours of straight typing.  Now we revise, correct, format and print a document that somebody else has screwed up and can't figure out how to fix their mistakes.

But typing wasn't always my career goal.  In 1967 I received a scholarship to Illinois State University and I was prepared to come out the other side 4 years later as a business education teacher.  Remember those?  They taught typing, shorthand, office machines and skills, stuff like that.

I wanted to teach and had envisions of my classes being highly sought after and fun.  And then I threw away my scholarship because I didn't want my parents to have to pay a lot of money for my education.  Looking back and by today's standards it probably wasn't much.   I went to a junior college instead and did well in everything except Economics.  I didn't understand it then and I don't understand it now.  The professor and I had an agreement - he wouldn't ask me any questions - and I wouldn't answer any.  Worked out well and I eked out a passable, but barely, grade.  Skill classes were where I really shined.  I could take shorthand at 100 wpm and could type that fast as well.  I was sure I was on the right path.

Let's just say that after one year in college, I was at the juncture of two roads and I selected the wrong one.  Didn't think so at the time - but this many years later - it was.  Altered my life forever and dashed my dreams of ever standing up in front of a classroom telling them where the "a" and "s" keys are on a typewriter (computer).

Could I have gone back?  Sure but I wasn't that ambitious. I was working full-time and raising 3 boys.  Before moving east Jeff was a road warrior and was gone more than he was home and I had my hands full. There was no time in my life to further my education.  

Jeff and I did take a few classes at the local junior college to keep his GI Bill money coming in.  One of the classes he was required to take was Philosophy taught by an old, bitter spinster woman.  There are no other words fit to describe her.  In class I diligently took notes and when it came to take tests I would hear this nagging whisper in my ear "write bigger"!

The final exam was to take two philosophers and compare them for similarities and differences.  I wrote NOT one but TWO final exams.  I received an A on both papers but on my submission the teacher wrote "It didn't behoove you to copy off of Mr. Bassett's paper."  That was the LAST class we ever took together!

While I never formally taught and never will, I am the person my coworkers seek out when they have a document or spreadsheet that is giving them trouble. I have become pretty adapt at headers, footers and section breaks.  I guess in a small way I'm a teacher.

Have a great day.

P