The Absent Uncle: Life is seldom a straight line

 I have had a bit of time to go back into my personal writings and reflect on the subjects, times, and content. When I write I make sure to include the date the piece was written to ensure I can understand the context based on when it was written. 

Things change as life goes on. How you see things; how you react (or not); and the decisions made all are based on the sum total of your experience prior, current status, and your hopes and dreams for the future. 

For most of us, it is seldom a straight line. 

In interviewing prospective employees (in my previous employed life) one of my favorite questions was to ask the candidate, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” I listened to a lot of confused answers, probably some fantasies, “I’ve never thought about it”, and the always hopeful ones that said, “Working here and moving upward in the organization”. 

Having sat in that chair across the table from the interviewer myself, I probably sounded the same at various points in life.

When I started my working career after my time in the Navy, the last thing I ever dreamed I would be doing was being a part of the student transportation industry for over 40 years. In the beginning I thought that someday I would have to go out and find a “real” job. And in talking with my peers over the latter years of my career, I found no one that started out trying to get into the industry – they were all like me – through opportunities, chance, failed plans, and factors sometimes way beyond our control, here we were. Running school buses. 

Probably most careers/industries are like that. Unless your family owns the business or farm with the intent that a position would be made for offspring to move into and carry on the business.

For the most part I enjoyed what I did. Creating and having a smooth, safe, and efficient team operation was a point of satisfaction for me. Some of the individual experiences were painful, but overall, the good outweighed the bad. 

But the jagged line that got me there and was a part of keeping me there is the story of my working life.