Today I am thankful for my career.
Not just my current job, for which I am thankful, but the whole arc of my career.
I started working in technology in 1992, when I was attending college with the hopes of being an English teacher. Somehow I ended up doing some clerical work for a local software developer who also did some hardware reselling and support.
One day they were short staffed, and they needed someone to visit a customer site. So they said, “Hey Brad, do you think you could install this tape backup drive for a client?”
I responded with the five words that have gotten me in more trouble than any other words in my life: “How hard can that be?”
That started me down the road.
It took me a while to let go of teaching, though. But I eventually found a way to combine my educational background with my vocational experience when I took a job as a computer lab aide at Hans Herr Elementary School in Lampeter Strasburg. That job paid very poorly, but it was the best job I ever had. I would actually wake up on weekdays excited about going to work. I loved working with the kids, and I even got to spend a couple hours a day outside being the Recess Guy. That was so much fun.
But we all have to grow up and soon I took a full time “grown up” job in the tech department of the Eastern Lancaster County School District. That lasted five weeks, until Etown came calling and offered me more money and more responsbility.
Twelve more years passed at Etown before my current boss called me and asked me to apply for my current job at Manheim Township.
It’s been a fun ride, and I never would have predicted where I’d end up. And who knows? Maybe the ride isn’t over yet.
I am thankful for my career.