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My dad worked for an envelope and ink factory (Westvaco) before becoming an injection molder at Lego, then an EMT and eventually a supervisor spot at a desk in the hospital. He died from COVID in 2022. I couldn’t be there at the hospital due to being a brokie unable to fly home fast, but I managed to get there for the funeral at least. He always encouraged me to chase smart impossible things.
My mom was mainly a homemaker but worked full time as a warehouse order selector for Hallmark after a brief time doing drive-thru at McDonalds before that (she’d walk to and from work until she could afford a car) until Hallmark downsized and severe arthritis from years of that work with osteo put her on disability from that point forward. We’re still quite close though I live ~2000 miles away from home. She taught me how to make anywhere feel home enough.
I was told growing up to try with talent where I found it, and to do better than their story in life, so I tried some classics: I got a doctorate because I was academically above average then became an attorney, I founded a nonprofit because I had a knack gathering people for transformative works and now I’m chasing tech in crypto in hopes of escaping the working-class poverty reality I was born in and stayed in (you’d think the law degree would have done that, lol) while also tapping something I naturally feel I am doing well at and, more importantly, am enjoying.
Their professions never really mattered, it was the lives I watched them live around them that changed how I perceived profession schools and the advice they gave me after their best and worst work days. Unfortunately I now live with the consequences of trying to break the mold, for better or for worse. But life is still young 🫠 the journey’s nowhere near done just like the student loan debt. 1 reply
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