Seventeen and Counting

[kybearfuzz]

Today marks my seventeenth anniversary at work. This one is fun in a sense that it hits on the exact day of the week when I started. It seems so long ago, yet it doesn't.


Geez... I can't believe I'm posting this...

I thought about it a lot yesterday. Seventeen years ago yesterday, I had moved into my one-bedroom apartment with nothing more than a bed I'd just purchased, boxes of my stuff and a small, 13-inch color TV with no cable. I had a seven-year old Pontiac 6000LE that I'd bought earlier that week in the parking lot. The ink on my bachelor's degree was almost dry. I was 21 years old. To say I had just started my adult life would be an understatement, definitely humble beginnings.

My first professional job as a chemist started the next day. I was apprehensive, having no idea what I was in for and getting very little sound advice from my parents. I had already picked out the clothes I was planning on wearing, jeans and a button-up, which I had observed the chemists in the lab wearing during my interview. I had bought groceries, mostly junk food, and ordered a pizza for dinner I think. I popped myself down to watch whatever TV my antenna would pick up and found nothing on but news report after news report about a stupid white-Bronco chase on the west coast. Yeah, OJ had covered the airwaves all day and would continue all night. I turned the TV off.

I went to bed early that night, curling up on my bed in my living room, my alarm clock sitting on a couple of boxes within arm's reach. I had trouble falling asleep because of my nervousness, but eventually conked out. The next day I'd walk the tightrope without the safety net of school beneath me. While the next day was a comedic day of errors, I got through it, starting what has turned into a very fruitful career.

If you would have told me then what I would go through the next 17 years, I'd have not believed you -- leaving the lab, moving to Kansas City and back, traveling overseas by myself, teaching computer courses, coming out of the closet. I've done a lot of growing up in those years. I'm happy to have a house of my own, a car that I bought new (my first), and four televisions about the house with cable. I still have that bed I bought back then, it's in my spare room and is still very comfortable.

Who knows what will come next...

Comments

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

So much accomplished, so many dreams to go! Congratulations!

HUGS!

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

Thanks Neil. Heaven only knows where it goes from here.

[epinoid.livejournal.com]

Happy Anniversary. And it is the same day for me except it was 23 years ago that I started at IBM as a chemical engineer.

May what comes next bring you joy!

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

Thanks Karl, and happy anniversary to you too!

[martini-tim.livejournal.com]

Wow, that was a long time ago. Imagine where you will be in another seventeen years!

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

Wow.. I'll be 55 (daddy bear) and looking forward to retirement in another 2 years. Hopefully I'll still have my own teeth.

[mort-83.livejournal.com]

Retire at 57?

Oh, I wish. LOL

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

Well, that will be the age I have to hit to be eligible. Now whether I'll do it...

[prisoncitybear.livejournal.com]

Grrrrrrr, as a Daddy bear, call me, we can share notes.

[mort-83.livejournal.com]

Happy Anniversary!

Your story reminds me of moving to NYS for grad school---and that happened to me over the past 23 years..ye gods.

I can't believe that's you in the picture! My, you've aged well. :-)

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

LOL... it's quite a move going off to a new place for a big event! I hope your new apartment was better furnished than mine.

And, not to sound vain, but I feel like I sort of ... grew into my looks ... as I got older. I didn't really pay too much attention to my appearance back then. Egads, the hair alone!

[(Anonymous)]

I lived in an apartment building (school owned) that came furnished...more or less. I lived there for three years, and then started living in rented houses the last 2.5 years of grad school with other students. Three houses in 2 and half years....crazy, but we had a lot of fun.

I completely get the "growing into my looks" thing. I'm the same way. I have some horrific pics of my younger days. LOL.

[spikejrt.livejournal.com]

you have done well for yourself - WTG!

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

Thanks :)

[texwriterbear.livejournal.com]

Happy Anniversary :)

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

Thanks furry bear!

[eric-mathgeek.livejournal.com]

Very cool -- happy anniversary!

You'll like this -- Did you know Trader Joe's guacamole is called "Avocado's Number"? :)

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

Thanks handsome!

LOL.. "Avocado's Number" huh? Is 6.023 x 10^23 the number of calories?

[mort-83.livejournal.com]

ROFLOL!

[labeartorycub.livejournal.com]

Happy Anniversary and congratulations on all your achievements these past 17 years. HUGS

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

Thanks :)

[dendren.livejournal.com]

very cool... it's amazing how time moves so quick.

you've grown up nicely in the last 17 years :)

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

LOL.. thanks! My first 17 weren't so great. I really prefer the last 17.

Congratulations, Mark.

[bonkishnurtaz.livejournal.com]

Seventeen years is indeed quite a milestone. You should be duly proud of your accomplishments. A week from tomorrow, will mark my 12th anniversary at my company. During my first anniversary, I had a very nice meal at a very high end steakhouse with my former best friend Mike. That was my most expensive meal to date, $235 including tip. But then, Mike was worth it. Despite everything, we still had a semblance of a friendship until late last year. He had helped me to get through some difficult times, the death of my father, the union strike, etc. Ironically, you resemble him slightly when he was younger.

When I had turned 21, I was assisting a landscaper. Later that summer, I had been working out at a health club to get into good physical condition. In September of that year, I was off to bootcamp for the U.S.N. I was slightly younger than you are now, when I had first started working at my present job. I probably would have rather been a pharmacist or a chemist, but instead my job is based more upon physics than chemistry! (((((HUGS))))

[mikiedoggie.livejournal.com]

Pretty awesome there, Mark. I know we've talked about our respective jobs a lot, and I think you are pretty amazaballs from where you started, to where you are now.

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

LOL... amazaballs? Now that is one I have to remember. And thanks :)

This reminds me of my OWN start as a working adult.

[anziulewicz.livejournal.com]

AFter I graduated from West Virginia University in 1981 with a degree in Broadcasting Journalism, I spend another six months in Morgantown, working as a dishwasher at a local restaurant, while sending out audition tapes and resumes. And in January of 1982 I got a call from a guy who said he was taking over a little radio station in Grafton, WV (about half an hour south of Morgantown), and that he had heard through the grapevine that I was looking for a job in news reporting, so would I be interested in being his new news director? And before I knew it, I was stuffing all my personal possessions into my 1979 AMC Spirit and moving to Grafton. I found a drafty little apartment with no furniture, and all I had was a foam matress to sleep on, plus a little clock radio to listen to, and little else. I worked my way up from there.

Re: This reminds me of my OWN start as a working adult.

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

Ah, how far we've come. Having my own place after college graduation was a big deal for me :)

[orangecrush206.livejournal.com]

Congrats!

Today is also my work anniversary (28th). I started in 1983, 5 days out of high school. And I'm still working for the same company. I've tracked it this year because the days of the week this year are the same as they were in 1983.

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

28 years!!!? Wow, that is amazing! :)

Happy Anniversary!!!

[clintswan.livejournal.com]

*proudofyouhugs*

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

Thanks handsome :)

[rootbeer1.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on a life well lived!

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

I'm certainly working on it :D