A couple of weeks ago I posted about my 20th anniversary out of school. It brought back memories of that December graduation in 1993 and the events thereafter. It also made me think how that time frame went a long way towards shaping the next 20 years of my life.
My last semester in college and you’d think I could just cruise through it on auto-pilot. Not hardly! If anything it was the most challenging of all my semesters. I was taking the most advanced research and computer classes I could before graduating. I knew that my financial situation would not be great after school even if I landed a job immediately so I wanted to be current as possible before I got out into the big bad world. On top of that I was taking elective courses like civil engineering surveying and environmental sciences to cross train as much as possible and have a wide range of knowledge.
I wanted to be a rabid football fan but I just couldn’t spare the time that fall. I spent as much time as possible buried in books and classes that I had to give up much of my social life too.
Besides all of that I was worried about what all college kids worry about. Finding a job.
I was in Colorado the previous Summer at a field camp doing some geology classes. We were all sitting around in a beer garden one night after class when I had the realization that this was it for me as far as formal school. That final vestige of childhood was being stripped away from me and for better or worse I was going to be fully on my own.
I took advantage of the school’s placement resources when I got back to campus that Summer and all through the Fall. I wrote up a resume as best as I could and taking all the counselor’s advice and used the school’s print center to run off as many copies as I could. Among other disadvantages, I would be without a computer or a printer. I wouldn’t have a personal computer again till 1995.
So we skip ahead to finals week. I had my classes well in hand and I was boxing up my apartment. My lease was also ending so I had to be packed and ready to leave. I had applied to get a refund for my utility and rent deposits. The resumes I had sent out so far had yielded no results yet.
The registrar verified I had no outstanding loans or library books and cleared me to graduate. I stepped out of the office and sneezed. That was a sign of things to come.
I made my goodbyes to my friends. I was much more socially awkward back then and really didn’t know how to handle such things. In particular I bid goodbye to one young lady I really liked. She still had a year to go in school. We promised we’d write and we did for a while but I think we both knew we’d never see each other ever again.
The night before graduation and I’m deep into packing up. I’ve got a raging headache, it’s unusually cold for early December. I’m feeling even more miserable.
My parents show up. They want to take me to dinner but I beg off and go to bed. The next morning I can barely get out of bed. My sinuses are pounding and graduation is an hour off. My parents and other family members are waiting for me. I take some cold medicine to keep me going an somehow I stagger to the graduation. I’m dizzy, nauseous, coughing, and miserable.
Michel Halbouty, a legend in the Texas oil industry, hands me my diploma and shakes my hand. I barely notice him. It’s all I can do to keep from falling over.
After graduation my parents realize just how sick I am. They pack up the rest of my stuff and drive me back to Houston. I spend the next 2 weeks in bed with the flu from hell.
So I started my adult life after college in a sick-bed with a couple hundred bucks from deposit refunds, a car that was on its last legs, no girlfriend, and no job.
It would in fact take me six months to land my first job. I had several false starts with recruiting agencies and want ads in the paper but I finally landed the job I would have for the next 8 years. I got the job by walking in and asking for it. And it wasn’t due to my degree or my work experience but by trading on my “computer expertise” and working for a small consulting company whose execs knew even less than I did about computers.
I started at 6 dollars an hour and felt like the biggest failure ever. This is what I went to college for? Over time of course that improved and my job skills would expand and my responsibilities would make me a more valued asset at the company but it was difficult to see the upside back then.
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