Take every chance you can
My parents split up when I was about 17 - a shock to me, but not the end of the world. In fact it all turned out for the best , though I'm afraid you'll have to wait for the "My Dad married my Step Dads wife then my Step Dad married my Mum" QOTW for me to fill you in on that one in full - oh wait, I just did. Well, they did.

Soon after, I started an HND Computing course at a Polytechnic in the Midlands.

Mum ended up in the family house while Dad found another place.

At Christmas time Mum held the annual Christmas drinks party - well it be daft to hold it any other time wouldn't it?

As is the tradition of parents giving such parties, the son (that's me) gets to hand round drinks and generally wait on all the guests.

Learning my lesson from a few years before, I didn't tuck into the wine quite so energetically this time, no I did not have to be supported / dragged down the road by my mates to get me out of the way of the guests / parents etc. Which on the whole was an improvement.

Anyway. Every time I handed a drink to a guest I got the same questions "How are you doing / fine thanks" "What are you doing now / doing HND Computing at Poly" "Am I enjoying it / yes" etc etc. I must have had the same converstaion 20 times+. Well it felt like it to me anyway.

Towards the end of the party, I hand another glass of wine to a guest, and he asks "So FatBoyBubba - what are you doing these days?"

I remember thinking to myself "Can I REALLY be arsed to go through this all over again? Ahh well, one more time won't kill you" so off I went "HND Computing at Poly" etc etc.

At the end of the conversation, said guest says "Well, I don't know if you're interested ... but I've got a friend out in Minneapolis who runs an IT company, maybe I can get you some work experience out there?"

"Errr ... YES PLEASE!!!"

Six months later, I flew out to MN for the summer, gained loads of IT experience, made some good friends and returned to Poly where we then studied everything I'd just learned. I finished Uni (I'd timed it to perfection as it then became a University just before I finished my course) with a great CV already, setup for a decent career in IT where I've worked for the last 15 years or so.

Take every chance you can. I'm incredibly grateful to MP for giving me that first chance.
(fatboybubba, Fri 3 Apr 2009, 17:56, 2 replies)

You should suggest that QOTW
You'd probably win it.
(Smale is stuffed, Fri 3 Apr 2009, 20:53, closed)

You should suggest that QOTW
as in "What chances have you taken in life?"

Good idea - I can't now though - it's your idea - go for it!

Simon.
(fatboybubba, Mon 6 Apr 2009, 0:02, closed)