Training

I have been training a lot and learning a lot. Maybe I try and overachieve too much. When I was in college, I spent most of my time studying. There was no way around it for me because of my brain problems. Now that I’m training and learning for work, there is more pressure on me because this is for my livelihood and not just for good grades. My work ethic is the same. I am doing all of this training at home, but still manage to put in a lot of hours.

Only a short time left

I’m not the typical college graduate. I’m not in my early to mid 20s. I’m 51 years old and my official retirement date isn’t very far away. This adds a lot more stress with regards to how my finances will be when I retire. It’s only 15 years away. To be honest, disability hasn’t exactly made me a rich man. I have no money saved at all. This is the scary part. One of the main reasons why I chose my career in insurance is It’s flexible and I am in control of how much money I make, or don’t make.

I don’t have to start at the bottom necessarily. If I chose a typical career path, that only gives me 15 years or so to rise through the ranks. One thing I learned during my job search, no one wants to hire a 51 year old disabled person who hasn’t worked in almost 20 years. This is just my opinion of course. My motivation is being able to support my family and that’s another reason why I chose this path.

As I go through the training and learn more, I am becoming more confident that I will be good at what I do. The first few months will be a good indicator of my performance. If I’m good now, I will be better later. A little bit of luck wouldn’t hurt either, although I’ve never considered myself as lucky. My mom might disagree because I’m lucky to be alive. It’s nice to be getting a steady paycheck right now too, and not killing myself like I was doing at the Walmart job which was too physical for me.

The Holidays

The holiday season is coming up. I already started buying presents for my son. I buy one gift for him whenever I go grocery shopping. Grocery shopping is done at Walmart, so two birds. We are going home to California for Thanksgiving this year. Me, my childrens, and my girlfriend. A good family trip. And we’re going to Disneyland while we’re there. Everyone is excited of course. I might have to sit down a lot. Too much walking for me. But it’s more about the family time than my walking ability. It sucks I can’t go on roller coasters anymore. The haunted house and a Small World are about it for me.

I don’t think I’ll get to see my friends too much this time. The last time I was home was last Christmas. It’s been a while so I’m sure I’ll hear about the drama that’s been happening with everyone. Catching up is fun though. Normally I would go hang out with my friends at the bar every night, but that doesn’t appeal to me much anymore. There’s a few things I’d like to do with my girlfriend too, show her more of Southern California even though she lived there for a short time. It’s going to be a fun trip and a little break from training.

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