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It’s funny because it’s TRUE! I don’t know how things work these days, but waaaaaaaaaay back when I was a college graduate and recently commissioned second lieutenant, there was a few months of waiting between the day a cadet got their commission and the day they got to start Officer Basic Course (OBC). In my case, I had to wait almost six months, and since no companies were interested in hiring someone for six months only to watch them disappear for five months of military training, I was stuck taking on various part-time jobs. Among other things, I worked one part-time job as a recruiter for the VTCC and another part-time as an artist for a t-shirt company that went bankrupt halfway through the summer. Yeah, fun times.
Then I went off to OBC for five months at Fort Eustis, and when I was done with that… I went right back to lousy part-time jobs. I had no idea what I wanted to do after college, and I ended up being selected for the Reserves instead of the regular Army, so I just sort of floated around for a while. I got a job at Hardee’s in Squires Student Center (and to this day I hate fast food). Then I signed up for grad school at Radford University and got a job as a graduate teaching assistant. That was better. I spent most of my time developing computer graphics for the oral communications department at Radford, and to this day, I still do that kind of work from time to time. Then I finished my course work, moved to be with my husband, and got another lousy part-time job as a cashier at an arts and crafts store where I spent way too much time restocking the silk florals aisle. I hate silk flowers almost as much as I hate fast food.
After that, I sold advertising for a local newspaper, which was… okay. I was not a natural salesperson, and driving around all day trying to convince people to buy advertising was “challenging,” shall we say? Then I got a job as a government contractor doing computer graphics for a two-star general. And the work there varied from interesting to mind-numbing to outright frustrating. It was the highest paying job I ever held. I worked with some Very Important People in the military, I put in 80 hours a week and I got paid for 40. I quit working for other people after four years at that job.
Then I was on my own, doing whatever I could figure out how to do. It’s taken me years to figure out how to run my own business, and to be honest, I’m still learning. But that’s okay, because I have a full-time job outside of that. It’s called “Mom” and I get paid in hugs and kisses and the occasional spatter of cat puke.
See what you cadets have to look forward to in life?!
