Let's face it, for some of us the door opened to a wonderful new chapter at a large university, with interesting people who (like you) have their whole future glistening (like the Emerald City) before them.
There are also those of us (I include myself in this group) that completed high school (with great tenacity) and had a chapter begin called "Now What?"
Yes, I have a high school diploma, class of 1970 (I don't like to brag) and THAT in itself was a big deal in my family. My father didn't earn one, my mother didn't earn one, my sister didn't and so on...
I had become an earner very early on - 9 years old I worked Saturdays at my father's car lot, and then actually got a real job at 11 years old (my dad lied for me and told them I was 13) in a family owned supermarket ($1 /hr under the table - more than I made washing cars Saturdays at the used car lot). But this story is what came after high school.
Let me set the scene just a tad more for context. Many of my running buddies (I didn't have any actual friends) started their new lives knocking up their girlfriend and being forced to marry. congratulations. Many hung out at a park and drank Boones Farm wine on a daily basis. I joined them once. To be fair, I did know a couple of dudes who went on to college and thus fell into that first group I mentioned.
My high school job senior year was driving Chinese food to the hungry folks of Chicagoland. I did that after school last part of the semester, and through the summer. I had a moo goo gai pan lovin' customer called George who would engage me in conversation when I would show up at the door of his high rise on Michigan avenue. After a 3-4 of these 'casual' inquires into my life, George invited me to his office to apply for a job with his small company. Wow! 17 and working at a real company indoors and everything!!!
The siren song of Texas called when my girlfriend and I visited my family Christmas '71. Wow, great weather, and pretty easy living from what I could tell. Bye George, bye Chicago, I am (we are) heading for Houston!
Now my second year out of high school and looking to get started in a new town (Sophomore year for you college kids). I did a stint as a waiter at Steak and Ale, a short gig as an apple stacker at Rice Food Market, then worked for a family building an add-on to their house in SW Houston.
Now we are at year 3. During my Junior year at the college of Hard Knocks, I:
1. Got married (age 20)
2. moved to Austin and became a full-time musician
Senior year would be me paying the rent (playing 5 nights per week at a lounge) and working hard to bring the band I was in to 'money' gigs.
A month before my 22nd birthday, our band hit the road for 4 months with one month in Albuquerque NM, and 3 months in San Francisco (where we were, quite literally the toast of the town). Graduation!
Life had officially begun, a glistening city lies ahead . . .
