Reflections of the past decade (2000-2005) pt 1

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  Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Wednesday, December 30, 2009

   A Decade in Review  

   So as i sit here at 3 am sipping on cup of tea with a touch of fresh honey unable to sleep preparing to embrace the coming decade I've decided to right a little note reflecting on how the past 10 years were to me and how they've shaped the person I am today.

   I started the decade in a less then desirable manner, Passed out in a drunken slumber not even making it to the big Y2K I had so eagerly anticipated for all those months.
I had bought more then enough alcohol for myself and my future Ex-Girlfriend and in a telling of times to come at the last second she canceled on me with some random excuse and i was left with 3 bottles of champagne and 2 26oz bottles of rum, perhaps a little to eager to not let the news get me down I drank far to much far to fast and by 10pm I was too drunk to know what was going on and as my friends prepared to head downtown for what would be an evening of epic proportions I found myself heading home and passed out before i could even see the results of the much hyped Y2K events that were just that media hype. (2012 anyone?)

  The past decade has been my first one as an adult and as such it brought with it many new experiences.
I finished high school and thought my education was forever finished and i knew everything there was to know about life and the world at 18, i would later learn I knew very little at 18 and my true education would not come in a classroom striving for mediocrity It would come in the big scary world but lets not jump a head.

   Soon after graduating high school I would turn 18 and now becoming an adult i was eager to embrace my capitalist potential To prove to the world (mostly my girlfriend at the time and my parents)
That I was able to be a self-sufficient productive member of society As This along with independence and conformity seemed to be a well sought after trait within my community.

   Literally the day after turning 18 I entered the work world and instantly found out it wasn't nearly as enjoyable as all the sit-coms leave you to believe.
My first job was at Fed-ex unloading boxes from dirty dusty cold Trucks at 4am, It was hard dirty physical labour That paid 8 dollars an hour Before tax/cpp/EI deductions.
I remember the horror of opening my first check having already done the math of my expect earnings in my head only to see that I'd be jacked roughly 30% from my already meager salary.
What happened next I can only describe as an instant life lesson on the value of the dollar...

My Co-worker who was also my jnr high school friend who had gotten me the job wanted to meet up with another friend of ours who was working the graveyard shift and celebrate pay-day with some tasty Mc-donalds breakfast.
When we got to Mc-donalds I remember very clearly looking up at the combo prices all being around 6 dollars having only made 28 dollars that day of hard physical labour and realizing that  Breakfast was going to Cost me 1 hour of hard labour, I instantly lost my appetite and enjoyed a ice cold FREE water.
It was on this day that I learned several valuable lessons that i keep with me to this day.

1- Spending money at work (IE: going out for breakfast, lunch or coffee) Is counter productive.
2- work money should be used as a tool to reach a goal to break the cycle rather then encourage it.
3 And this one was very important There has got be something better then this out there!

Shortly After i ended my time at fed-ex But determined i could man-up My next move was something i had hoped to never do, I left fed-ex for a job i swore as a child I'd never do.
I thought that if i quit For a better paying job, it wasn't the same as just quitting...Soo... As most of you know I made a decision that would change the course of the decade for me.
I started a "summer" job for the next 8 years at my dads uncles plumbing company.

The plumbing years
Year 1 (2000)
The plumbing years brought for me many highs and lows although i won't lie they were mostly lows, I found myself 2 months after turning 18 moving out on my own taking on rent payments utilities and all that fun stuff Then by october I had written off my car on black ice.
Suddenly I found myself needing to buy a new car struggling to get my new place furnished and my car insurance had gone up to 4,500 a year all while earning the enviable wage of 10/hr.
All  while I found my relationship with my girlfriend (whom as stated before hand I was doing most of this for) fall apart although it was unfortunately still far from over.
I found myself envious of my friends who had decided to take less serious career choices so early on and thus were enjoying there first years of adulthood in a different manner, hitting up the bar scene and out clubbing /partying everyday even on weekdays, Which i hardly had the energy for having to get up any given morning before 6am.

As the plumbing years progressed I gradually found my routine (rut?) My summer job had turned into an apprenticeship and i was well on my way to earning the respect of my peers though good old fashioned hard work! Ha!
Early life lesson number 4 Hard work does not get you recognized by management it only gets you more hard work.
By plumbing year 2 (2001) I had come out of NAIT proudly with a 86% average unfortunately no one else seemed to care / notice.
I was starting to feel Hmm lets use the word Disliked? By my fathers family and generally by other co-workers who seemed to despise me because i was related to management, I Increasingly felt alienated and desperately Tried to quit and get out many times Which brought on much conflict with my parents who were determined at the time to see me live my fathers life (which in there defense had brought them the Canadian dream.)
However As each generation wants better then the previous I was terrified at the prospect of spending the next 45 years in this awful "ground hog day" situation, Which brought much stress and depression when mixed with other outside factors in my personal life which was also crumbling directly and in-directly to everything else going on I found myself constantly hitting new lows.
I had tried So hard to try to find some middle ground where people would be happy with me and nothing seemed to work, At work it seemed the harder I tried and better I did the more Everyone hated me (I had finished my apprenticeship off top of my class having among other subjects gotten 100% on my math final exam.) 
 
   By 2005 I had Come to an agreement with my parents That If I finished my Apprenticeship and I still wasn't happy (mind set behind all this being I'd be earning so much money Greed would take over and along with north American materialism would replace basic human emotions and desire for happiness and joy)
I Could Quit plumbing and walk away without any hard feelings, This is important Because I Had tried to quit several times over the past 5 years Each time bringing with it much conflict with my parents and I was reaching the boiling point where It was my Sanity vs there Flawed dreams for me.
    I had finished my schooling a bit sooner then I had hours to complete the whole School / work ratio required by Alberta / federal apprenticeship education standards.
So I returned to work put in my time And literally The week I had my hours in I walked away from that life for what I then thought would be forever.

   To my surprise Somewhere between the apprenticeship board and my employer Someone Had lost 7 months worth of my hours It seemed to be there way of giving me one last big F#ck you!

  I had kept my part of the deal and keeping consistent with the theme for these first 5 years of 2000 I was blamed for the whole hours mix up by all angles, When i think of this decade  I think I'll call it The lonely Decade, As I increasingly and constantly found myself on the defense With no one to turn for emotional support, The consensus was in And i was wrong consistently wrong on all fronts in life. I found myself keeping to myself a lot at this point.

Sorry if this all sounds like a bunch of self loathing crap,  and for the fact that it has gone way long But don't worry Its about to become much more positive As I direct every once of my soul away from the current path to something completely different and unknown to me at 23 for the second half of this decade

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