My first thoughts of what career I would pursue later in life didn’t cross my mind until the end of my high school life. It wasn’t a matter of the conversation never being brought up to me by my parents, or not getting an internship around my hometown that helped me come to a decision, I just never gave it any consideration. The prospects of determining a job and sticking with it for the rest of my life didn’t seem appealing to me (obviously that’s not the case in the real world, you can pick and choose to a certain extent). Between then and now I’ve made some drastic changes in who I want to be when I grow up. The first began around the start of my senior year of high school . . .
When asked if I wanted to enroll in the internship program in my high school, I figured why not. What’s the worst that could happen? Maybe I’ll find a job out there I really enjoy and just stick with it. Before this year, I had picked up a relatively expensive hobby (road cycling) with a group of rich doctors in my town. They took me under their wings, helped me get my own set of expensive wheels (I got the entry model that only blew a small hole into my savings) and rode. Over the course of my high school life I trained with them, learned names, shared stories, and in the end got inspired. These guys have a shit load of money, each have more bicycles than I have fingers, and had the money to take them wherever they traveled. At this time in my life, I was dead set I needed this. Money to continue pursuing this hobby I picked up, and the education to make sure I got it. Sounds good, right? Wrong.
I very distinctly remember sitting in a small conference room at school, being interrogated by the internship staff and other administrative figures. They wanted to know what I wanted to get out of the program, and for me to prove that I would be worth their time in setting me up with a local clinic or hospital to shadow. My best excuses, well thought out days before my interview, were put to the test that day. I don’t quite remember the outcome of that conversation. I knew I made a good impression, but I never made it into that program. I don’t quite remember if I backed out last minute or if I just didn’t get accepted. However, one door that was opened to me was the option to shadow a teacher on campus. This opportunity opened up new doors for me, ones that I can say had some amount of influence in my mindset about careers today.
The Free-Thinking Entrepreneur
After failing to get into the medical internship program (I’ll have to ask my parents as to why this happened, I cannot remember for the life of me), I wound up shadowing one of my computer teachers. I knew that getting myself into the medical field may have led me to something I enjoyed, but I couldn’t be sure. I only wanted it for the money, to be able to continue my then-hobby and be like the other bikers in my group. I began each day of my internship watching over my teacher’s desk as he went over material I learned the previous day (just my luck to be shadowing the same class I was taking that semester, just a different time). There wasn’t a solidified structure to the internship; I was asked to help set up computers when needed, make any software changes, and other minor tasks. It wasn’t until a few weeks into the school year that I noticed a change.
I knew my teacher fixed cell phones (particularly iPhones) on a regular basis. I watched the process, it was somewhat interesting, but I never thought I could do it. I didn’t have steady hands by any means. However, one day I was asked by my teacher to help out with replacing a few screws in a phone he was reassembling. Not wanting to let down my teacher or make up an awkward excuse as to why I couldn’t help, I gave it a go. Expecting it to be similar to brain surgery, I was surprised. Other than a decent amount of concentration, I managed. Over time I helped him on a more regular basis, to the extent that I was his go-to guy when he needed an extra hand. I enjoyed it, and I began to see the financial side of the process. People were paying him really good money to replace broken screens. Considering myself to be decent with calculations, I figured the amount of money he made in the short time it took with the phones surpassed what he was making as a teacher. Pretty good, right? This hobby/side-job that I picked up in the internship changed my perspective on future careers and job goals that I would later pursue down the road.
Fixing Phones for Life?
I won’t go too much further in detail about my phone repair mini-career I started for myself. I just wanted to hit on the lesson I learned during my internship with my teacher. It opened my eyes to the numerous possibilities to make a living. I didn’t have to settle myself into a career as soon as I graduated college, or sign my soul away to a company as soon as I started working for them. I had the ability to create something for myself. Combine various hobbies and interests and make a healthy living from them. See where this entry is going? Hopefully as you continue reading you’ll understand the path I’ve traveled down that lead me to this blog today.
Acro With John 