Our Various Jobs and Lessons Learned [ Post #110]

Something that has always fascinated me is when I read about famous people, celebrities and the like, is what their early life was like. What they did in childhood, what their family life was like, what jobs they had in the years before breaking through to fame and fortune. Whether they became celebrities such as in the entertainment field, or world-renowned scientists, inventors or other important people, their growing up fascinates me. Causes me to think, why did they have the success they had as compared to others, the “average joes” of the world (and, perhaps what we would sometimes consider the “losers” in life).

So, I started thinking about my early life. I’ve mentioned my early life and the struggles I had, but then I began thinking about all of the work experiences I’ve had and how they helped shape me, what affect they had on me as I progressed and matured. Yes, I think each job I had before I got into my life’s career did affect me.

I’m sure I won’t remember every job I ever had, but I’ll give it a try to show how our jobs early in life do help shape the way we live and the direction we take in finding what we are here to do in life.

When I was very young, my family was into the “business,” as they called it. Hollywood, the movie business. My dad was a newspaper columnist for the Lansing State Journal newspaper in Michigan. He had moved the family to California from Michigan before my entering the scene. He wrote movie reviews for the Michigan paper and the rest of the family was involved in the movie industry. My brother and sister were “stand-ins” for child movie stars (Bobby Driscoll and Luana Pattan). My mother was an extra in movies. I was doing modeling for advertisements in magazines and newspapers. I have wondered how my life would have turned out if my family had kept me in the business, I think I let them know I was not really into that work, but I’m not sure what happened, how we got out of that line of employment. Oh, well, perhaps I could have become “somebody,” a Brad Pitt, perhaps? The possibilities boggle the mind.

In my teens I worked for my brother-in-law on their horse ranch for a summer. It was interesting. Not really my thing but interesting to see how the race horse business was run. Learned all about breeding horses. A real eye-opener, I would say. An interesting sex education of sorts.

My first job after high school was as a fry cook at a drive-in restaurant. I learned some cooking skills, which was a good thing and fun. Interesting group of people and leaned how to get along with all sorts of people. When the place closed down, my next job was with McDonalds. That was not enjoyable. They started new hires out washing dishes, pots and pans. If you stuck with it and really worked hard, you could be a cook or cashier, but I didn’t stick it out. I didn’t like how I was treated and that was one job I left with only one days’ notice.

When in college I once again got a job in the restaurant business. This time I was a cashier/food checker at a classy restaurant on Lake Union in Seattle. That was a fun time. Got to eat some great food and enjoyed my duties. It was also a beautiful setting right on the lake. Got along with the many different people i worked with.

One of the more unusual jobs I had was one summer during my college years was as a door-to-door salesman of vacuum cleaners. Yes, me, introvert that I am, a door-to-door salesman! But, can you believe it, I actually sold some vacuum cleaners, rather expensive ones in fact.

Also, during my college years I worked for a mortuary in Seattle and lived in the mortuary. I’ve written about that experience. Learned a lot about the death experience assisting with duties like cremating and embalming, etc.

In graduate school I took a job briefly working for a cleaning, janitorial service cleaning offices such as dentist and medical offices. Didn’t care for that work at all. Totally uninteresting. Decided that janitorial work was not my thing.

I worked for a couple of friends from my church. Worked in a packing company and a mass mailing company. Interesting, but again, the experience helped me decide what I did not want to spend my life doing.

Just before starting my airline career, I worked once again in the restaurant business as a cashier and food checker. It was a fun time. got to eat lots of good Mexican food. During that time, I saw an ad in the newspaper for a airport security company. This was when they were just starting to have security procedures at the airports after a series of hijackings. I figured I could possibly make contacts in that job that would land me a job in an airline. Voila, it worked. I made the right connections and got hired with an international airline.

So, those are the early jobs that come to mind before I found my “career” in aviation. Yes, lots of jumping around, doing whatever came up for employment to help pay the bills, as they say. Not all fun jobs, but all were learning experiences. All helped form my dealing with different types of people and situations. All helped show me what I did not want to spend my life doing. That background of work experience helped me sense an intuitive “click” in my life when I started my work with my airline. I knew working for an airline would be my life work and a very enjoyable career, even if it did have it’s hard and difficult times in the years to come. I was contemplating the possibly of becoming a pilot with the airline (I obtained my commercial pilot’s license at that time), but the timing for being hired for that position just did not work out. I was a couple of years out of sync for airline pilot hiring. I decided to stick with the jobs I had in the airline and just get out and travel the world.

I spent thirty-three years with the airlines. I did see the world. I would go to Europe several times a year for several years, always traveling first class. My first trip since being hired was a three-week trip around the world. What an education that was at age twenty-six!

So, we do various jobs out of necessity in our early life and hope to find the work we really want to spend our life doing. So, I understand the famous people and celebrities that had very menial jobs early in life. How they took that step to their eventual career when the opportunity occurred, I get it.

I do feel really sorry for those who never find their ‘life work.” If I had just stuck with my early jobs, well, I hate to think how my life would have turned out. I do believe that something was guiding me through the years. I got to achieve my dreams. I got to live a long life. I have no regrets or unrealized dreams. And the best part… it aint over yet! I feel there’s still a lot more to experience and enjoy. That’s a full life, as I see it.

Wally