Overall, I've tried to live my life under the philosophy that, since life is out to kill you from the moment you're born, it's best to live life cautiously.
Please note, I try to live life that way. It doesn't always work that way, such as the whole grenade in the backyard incident, or the numerous B.B. Gun fights I had as a child, or the time I went hiking and almost fell to my death from an 80 foot cliff, and on, and on, and on.
Beyond that, however, life has treated me very well up to this point, and by typing that, I fear I may have jinxed my existence until the end of my days. No, seriously, for as long as I can remember, just when I started worrying about the next stage in my life, my life just kind of went on cruise control and took care of things for me.
Just when I started worrying about college and financial aid, my parents landed teaching jobs in Japan. High paying teaching jobs in Japan. Problem solved. My parents paid for all my schooling, so I have no financial aid debt.
During college, as I floundered half-heartedly towards a teaching certificate with a major in English and minor in history, I realized I didn't want to teach, because that would mean standing in front of a classroom of younger versions of me. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Almost as soon as I realized that, I just happened to glance at the university handbook and realize that most of my credits would transfer over nicely to journalism. The book just happened to be open on my desk, on the correct page.
During my second year of journalism classes, I needed to find a job in the newspaper business to get my feet wet and help put a little more perpective into my classes. It turned out that one of my roommates was having sex with an editor at the local city newspaper. Problem solved. Within two weeks, I was working at the Winona Daily News from 6 to 10 p.m. each night, writing obituaries and other assorted grunt newsroom tasks.
After graduating from college, I was worrying about finding full time journalism work, and I was certain my search would take me far away from friends and family. Instead, I ended up landing a job within a 40 minute driving proximity. From there, the same roommate who was banging the editor who got me my first journalism job put in a good word for me at IBM. Within a year, IBM was calling and asking me to edit technical manuals. Well, that was nice and convenient, even though I ended up hating the job and hating my boss even worse.
The same week I was laid off from my first IBM job, I was contacted by a contracting company for, believe it or not, IBM. They saw my resume online and had a job offer for me within three weeks. So, I went from an IBM job that I hated, to one that I enjoy, at $3 more an hour than I was making previously.
Recently, I started thinking to myself that I may want to buy a house. A few days later, Melissa excitedly told me that her father was selling one of his rental duplex properties. I looked at the place, and I have to admit that I'm thinking about it with interest. Ryan Rhodes: property owner and landlord. I like the sound of that.
But, I must proceed with caution. Life could be setting me up for something here.
Heh, as an aside, over 800 visitors to this site today already, and it's not even noon yet. Tara Reid's breasts are apparently still a hot commodity on the Internet today.
Posted by Ryan at June 12, 2003 09:47 AM
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