How Did I Get Here?
Yesterday afternoon, after stocking up on Vital Supplies in ridiculous warehouse club quantities, the twins were still asleep. After risking our sanity walking around a store, we decided to really live dangerously and go out to eat. We didn’t just visit a fast food restaurant either; stopped at an actual sit-down restaurant with actual wait staff that come to our table to take our order, bring our food, and ask us to leave if we can’t keep those kids quiet. This was our visit trip to any restaurant as a five-unit family. I’ve always been terrified of the scenario where I’m trying to feed a baby while keeping Abbie placated and hoping the occasional food molecule somehow finds its way into my mouth. As long as the twins kept dozing, we were willing to press our luck.
We chose a small Mexican restaurant, and demanded their biggest available table so we could set two carriers at the end. I felt a little bad about hogging their large table, but we did have five of us. So what if three of them weren’t ordering an entrée?
As I sat at our table, I looked back by the door and saw my college advisor sitting at a table with friends. That brought back a flood of memories from my previous life, not just as a college student, but also as a productive member of society contributing to our GDP. Thanks to my degree in television and radio production, I held an honest job where a sat around all day, ran errands for my employer, and listened to people scream a lot. It was similar to my current position, except I got paid for it and the hours were shorter.
Ellie’s favorite memory about my advisor came from my final days in college half a dozen years ago. As he was dispensing advice in class like most good advisors do, one of his last nuggets of wisdom was “don’t get married right away. Spend some time working on your career, and then settle down once you’re established.” I heard his advice soon after getting engaged, a fact that my advisor didn’t know but my friends were all too eager to bludgeon him with after class.
Looking back on it, he was right; if you want a career in the media, you cannot settle down until you’ve found a job you want to do for a couple decades. If I wanted success, I needed to move to where the jobs are,* and bounce from employer to employer, slowing climbing the ladder and building my resume. Only after several years of advancement could I claim the things that all ambitious people strive for: Money and power, and the corresponding divorce and ulcers.
Poor foolish me, I had already tied myself down. I took a nearby job in my field that thankfully had nothing to do with local television, and toiled for a few years while Ellie finished school. When Abbie arrived the day after Ellie graduated, I left the career path I’d spent several years and thousands of dollars preparing for, and entered into a life of raising children. Childcare is a job so simple any idiot could do it, a fact demonstrated by the legions of idiots raising children out there.
Now my career, the paying career, is on hold for a few years while I raise three children to a level of self-sufficiency defined as being able to tie their own shoes. Maybe someday I’ll reenter the workforce. Maybe someday I’ll spend my 12 hours a day on World of Warcraft. Either way, I’m fortunate to have a wife who can support our family financially while I can do just about everything else.
My advisor came to our table before he left. He complimented us on our beautiful children and told us to enjoy the kids because time moves fast. He never stops giving advice.
* “Where the jobs are” is also known as “California,” or possibly “New York.”
We chose a small Mexican restaurant, and demanded their biggest available table so we could set two carriers at the end. I felt a little bad about hogging their large table, but we did have five of us. So what if three of them weren’t ordering an entrée?
As I sat at our table, I looked back by the door and saw my college advisor sitting at a table with friends. That brought back a flood of memories from my previous life, not just as a college student, but also as a productive member of society contributing to our GDP. Thanks to my degree in television and radio production, I held an honest job where a sat around all day, ran errands for my employer, and listened to people scream a lot. It was similar to my current position, except I got paid for it and the hours were shorter.
Ellie’s favorite memory about my advisor came from my final days in college half a dozen years ago. As he was dispensing advice in class like most good advisors do, one of his last nuggets of wisdom was “don’t get married right away. Spend some time working on your career, and then settle down once you’re established.” I heard his advice soon after getting engaged, a fact that my advisor didn’t know but my friends were all too eager to bludgeon him with after class.
Looking back on it, he was right; if you want a career in the media, you cannot settle down until you’ve found a job you want to do for a couple decades. If I wanted success, I needed to move to where the jobs are,* and bounce from employer to employer, slowing climbing the ladder and building my resume. Only after several years of advancement could I claim the things that all ambitious people strive for: Money and power, and the corresponding divorce and ulcers.
Poor foolish me, I had already tied myself down. I took a nearby job in my field that thankfully had nothing to do with local television, and toiled for a few years while Ellie finished school. When Abbie arrived the day after Ellie graduated, I left the career path I’d spent several years and thousands of dollars preparing for, and entered into a life of raising children. Childcare is a job so simple any idiot could do it, a fact demonstrated by the legions of idiots raising children out there.
Now my career, the paying career, is on hold for a few years while I raise three children to a level of self-sufficiency defined as being able to tie their own shoes. Maybe someday I’ll reenter the workforce. Maybe someday I’ll spend my 12 hours a day on World of Warcraft. Either way, I’m fortunate to have a wife who can support our family financially while I can do just about everything else.
My advisor came to our table before he left. He complimented us on our beautiful children and told us to enjoy the kids because time moves fast. He never stops giving advice.
* “Where the jobs are” is also known as “California,” or possibly “New York.”
posted by Matt at
10:16 PM
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