My earlier flippancy aside.
I initially worked in a clothing factory, cutting huge stacks of cloth for sewing into garments. I was suppose to be working on their electrical installation, which needed constant maintence, but worked on the floor most of the time.
Few more years down the line, worked in Social Work at a ground level basis, on some community regeneration projects.
Few more years and trained as a nurse.
Few more years trained as a building electrician. Got registered with a group called JIB and spent the last 20 or so years working in building on various levels.
Like many I suspect, I had enormous ambition when I left school but reality burst so many bubbles. It's fine if you get the right people to work with, but I suspect most simply become an attiude problem. In my case, I had an English accent in Scotland and was closet gay. (Safer).
I was kicked out of so many plans. Things simply didn't work here or there, no matter how hard I tried. I worried about how I would survive. It slowly dawned on me that the priority is to pay the bills.
If you do well at your job, if you manage to fit in and stay out of anyone's spot light, you're fine. But everyone is judged on their latest mistake. We are each compared to our lowest point. That time you did... or that time you mess up that... or that time this or that. You can be punctual for years, but be late once and you're tardy.
Others like to find that critical angle, that reason to attack because it gives them a more positive spin to compare themselves to. More, if they aren't getting at you, they get at someone else. Those periods when you had it good? Someone else was getting the kicking. It's only the young who have ambition and I wish them well. But most won't make it. Most will bet kicked around.
I made it to where I am now. No debts. House paid for and my wife and I have a rather modest, though just sufficient income. neither of us owes anything to anyone and we don't have to tip our hats.
But my own standards, I've succeeded. I really wish, for everyone, the same.
