Chapter 6: Job(s)
February 19, 2007
Jobs. Isn’t that a horrible word? Most of us hate it. They say there is a difference between those that have a job and those that have a career. I really couldn’t care less because to me, they are both the same. They do say though, just to state the difference, that when someone has a job, they are just doing it for the money and they probably don’t need any previous preparation or experience for it. Whereas when it comes to a career, people have to work their asses off for a few years before getting that job, within the career, and they are probably doing it because they love it, but in the end they are also doing it for the money, of course. In the end, we all work, or at least most of us do, because we need the money and not really because we want to.
Anyway, getting back to what is important, or semi-important. I am in senior year, so obviously this is a debate I have to deal with, pretty much on a daily basis now. The little good old days are gone. Where I could just sit down play with my Nintendo, ride my bike and worry about nothing but eating, having fun, and sleeping. Those were my worries back then. But now, although I do worry about those three things, I have to worry about what the heck I am going to do with my life after I am done with high-school. And I don’t know if there are people out there like me, but to me this is a pretty tough choice to make. It is not because I really don’t like anything, no, to the contrary. There are so many things I love doing and many things I am good at, that I really don’t know which one to pick from. And to add to my little pressure, to my decision making process, there was a college fair today at school.
“Are you going to the college fair?” My mom asked, obviously. She is the one that has been asking more than anyone else what I am going to do after I graduate.
“I don’t know.” I answered, with all honesty. I didn’t find any real reason to go to the stupid fair. I knew I wanted to do millions of things when I graduated and I couldn’t do them all while being in a college or university, where they were going to just teach me stuff I already knew just to reassure my knowledge. And heck they weren’t really going to reassure my knowledge they were just going to reassure how good of a memory I have because that is stuff I couldn’t care crap about. I mean, Chemistry? Give me a break…
“What do you mean you don’t know?” My mom asked.
“I don’t know mom, I don’t see the point.” I said.
“You don’t see the point? Are you crazy?” My mom said and she was starting to get loud and angry. I was about to answer with a “yes” but I decided not to, so I stood there silent to see if she had anything else to say in order to proof her point. And of course she did. “So you are telling me you want to end up in the streets? Like a bum?”
“No mom, of course not. It is just that there are so many things I want to do, that I haven’t decided which one to go for.” I answered.
“Well in the college fair they might help you decide.” My mom said.
“Maybe. I don’t know.” I said.
“Well I am your mother and I am ordering you to go.” She said.
“Fine.” I answered. I really didn’t have a choice. I knew if I fought back I would probably end up losing anyway. So I just gave up, because she might be right after all. She is my mother, might as well just listen to her once in a while.
“Good. There is money in the counter for the bus.” She said. Now this pissed me off, I hated taking the bus and she knew it.
“The bus?” I asked.
“Yes, the bus.” She said.
“Can’t you just take me? Or lend me the car?” I asked.
“Haven’t we had this discussion before? The answer was and still is, no. And don’t expect it to change any time soon.” She said.
“Why not? What is the big freaking deal?!” I said as I started to lose my temper.
“Once you get your own car, with your own money, you will be able to drive.” My mom said, and it is the same answer I always get. I guess I lose nothing by asking over and over again right? I mean, they might grow tired some day and let me borrow the car, I don’t know, that is probably just false hopes I have.
“That is unfair!” I said.
“That’s life right there for you buddy.” My mom said.
“What about you taking me?” I asked.
“Don’t you see I am busy?” My mom said. And I guess she was, a little bit, she was just finishing the dishes. But I mean, come on, I am her son, can’t she just spare a few minutes to take me to something SHE wants me to go after all?
Anyway, I just decided to stop fighting. I wasn’t in the mood for it really. So I stepped away, took the money and got out of the house without saying good bye or anything. I rode the bus to school. The school was pretty empty to be honest. First of all the seniors, most of them, already knew where they wanted to go study. It was February already, so I was late myself. I expected to see Mike over there because he was in the same situation as me, he didn’t know where to go study. He claimed he was going to play with the Yankees in the Major Leagues, but I didn’t believe him. Although I had seen him play a few times and he was pretty good, I have heard it is pretty tough to play in the MLB.
Most of the people that were at the College Fair were eleven graders. There were really few of them though, because in all honesty, eleven graders still had a lot of time to decide where to go study and they all knew it. Even though I was late to apply to college I didn’t want to come, so imaging eleven graders that have a lot of time to decide; if I were them, I wouldn’t be here either.
I walked towards the first college booth, or the nearest one at least. In front of me there was this nerdy girl, wearing these big old glasses, the stereotypical type. She was listening to the woman from the booth.
“So all you have to do is fill this form and we will send you information about the university and the advantages of studying with us.” The woman in the booth said while giving a paper to the nerdy girl. The nerdy girl turned around and got scared when she saw me, she hadn’t noticed I was there.
“Are you in my grade?” the nerdy girl asked.
“I don’t know. What grade are you in?” I asked. She gave me a weird look and fixed her glasses.
“Eleventh.” She answered.
“I am a senior.” I answered. I thought she had given me a weird look but boy I was wrong. The look she gave me after I said I was a senior was even weirder. If looks could kill, I swear I would have dropped dead right in that second.
“Senior? Aren’t you a little bit…late?” She said.
“Well aren’t you a little bit…obvious?” I said, completely mad and pushed her out of my way and walked towards the booth. The woman in the booth was laughing. I don’t know if she was laughing at me, at my comment, or at the nerdy girl, but I didn’t find any of the previous three funny. So that wasn’t a good start.
“Hi my name is Nicole, how may I help you today?” The woman in the booth asked.
“Hi. I don’t know, I am just looking for colleges where to go to. I realize I am a little bit late, but I need to go study somewhere.” I replied.
“Well it is never late to study with us. We offer a great variety of degrees. What is your GPA?” Nicole asked. I wasn’t sure what she meant with GPA but then I remembered it was like the average you have in high-school.
“Four point zero.” I replied.
“Wow, that’s great. And you haven’t decided what to study yet? Usually someone with your GPA knows what he wants to do for the rest of his life.” Nicole said.
“Usually, yeah.” I answered. I don’t know what she wanted me to say. I knew that, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do.
“Okay. So what kind of things you like to do? What kind of things are you good with?” Nicole said.
“Girls?” I said joking and laughed but she didn’t laugh so I tried to fix it as quick as possible. “No I am just kidding. Anyway, I am good with computers. I seem to find my way around them. I like to write from time to time too. Just little s
hort stories, basically scripts too, you know movie scripts. And I like sports, especially baseball. I don’t know. That’s about it.”
“Well you can actually do any of those in our college. Which one do you prefer?” Nicole asked.
“I do like movies and I would like to get to make movies one day. But I am better with computers and I simply love working with them and all that. So either way I go, will be just as fine with me.” I replied.
“Right well, you have to decide for one. I will help you out though. Our college is well known for its engineering programs. You can study Computer Engineering.” Nicole explained.
“Hmm, that sounds interesting. Tell me more.” I said.
“In computer engineering, you can do basically anything you want related to computers. We teach you about both the software and the hardware and then you can specialize in whichever you prefer. But you will end up with basic and strong knowledge in both areas.” Nicole explained and she went on for a little while explaining what I could and couldn’t do while studying Computer Engineering. To be honest, I don’t remember the things that I couldn’t do while being a Computer Engineer because it just seemed like they taught them everything about computers and stuff.
I decided that was enough. That is all I had to hear from the college fair, the first college booth I visited and I came out happily enough. Knowing what I wanted to study for the rest of my life. I hear they make good money too, so that is definitely a good thing. I decided to call Mike, to see if he had decided what to do.
“Hey man. What’s up?” Mike answered over the phone.
“Hey. It is all cool man. I just got out of the college fair.” I answered.
“College fair? You went to that thing?” Mike asked.
“Yeah dude, my mom made me. And it was good I did really.” I replied.
“Yeah?” Mike said.
“Yeah, I know what to do now. What I am going to study and what not.” I replied.
“And what would that be? Sleepology?” Mike said and laughed.
“Aren’t you the funny one? And you should study comedy.” I replied.
“I know right? But no seriously, what are you going to study?” Mike asked all serious now.
“Computer Engineering.” I replied, quite proud actually.
“Sounds geeky, but that’s awesome then bro. I am glad to hear.” Mike said.
“Geeky but interesting. Enough about me; how about you? What you up to? Got any ideas what to do with your lazy ass once you are off school?” I asked.
“Well yeah man, I have told you a thousand times. I am going to play in the MLB.” Mike said.
“Don’t get me wrong here but, what if you don’t make it man?” I asked.
“Oh I will. But hey I got to go because dinner is ready alright? I will talk to you later.” Mike said and before I could say bye he hung up. Boy, I hope he does get into the MLB, because if he doesn’t, he is screwed for life.
When I got home mom was there waiting for me, to hear the news. I explained everything that they had explained to me over at the booth and the possibilities.
“That’s great. I am glad. I hope you have the money to pay for it.” My mom said. I was surprised to hear her reply.
“You are not going to help me if I don’t?” I said.
“No. You have been saving all your life because of that. To go to the college you decide to go.” My mom said.
“Yeah, but what if I don’t have enough money?” I asked.
“Well you go to another one that you can afford.” My mom said.
“This is unbelievable.” I said smashing the papers I had from the college fair to the ground and started going towards my room.
“Hey young man! Pick up your stuff and don’t treat your mother like that!” My dad screamed but I didn’t care for what he or anyone said. I slammed the door and went to bed. My dad started knocking on the door madly.
“Robert! Open the door!” He screamed. “Open the damn door!” I just decided to ignore him, but it was really difficult. He was being really loud. Then I heard my mother screaming at him.
“Just leave him alone John. Let him be.” I heard her say.
“Let him be? I am defending you and now you defend him?” I heard my father say, but his words just kept fading away until I couldn’t listen to anything else.
I was in my room, lying in my bed thinking about my future. How life was sometimes unfair and I just couldn’t deal with it. I guess everything happens for a reason, I have always firmly believed in that. Yet this time around, I really couldn’t understand the reason. My mom seemed pretty interested in me going to college and all, but now that I have a college I want to go to, she doesn’t care if I can pay for it or not. It just didn’t make any sense to me. Before I knew it, before I could get more pissed off at life and everything related to it, I fell asleep.
To my surprise, I was dreaming. Yes, I am still surprise when I dream because it just doesn’t happen that often. When the dream began, I was walking out of school and I remember, I looked at my watch but it didn’t show the time, it didn’t show anything at all really. So I started pressing buttons and then the time came up, in a holographic way, it stood out of the watch kind of. The time was exactly 2:00 PM. Lisa and Mike were walking besides me.
“Alright see you later guys.” Lisa said and started to walk away from us.
“Wait, what are you guys going to do?” I asked.
“We are going to our respective workshops man.” Mike said.
“What workshops?” I asked and they both gave me a weird look after looking at each other.
“You know. You to the writing workshop, Mike to the baseball one and me to the modeling one.” Lisa said.
“Modeling? You? Seriously?” I said jokingly.
“Don’t be silly.” Lisa said smiling back.
“Don’t you remember man?” Mike said.
“Yeah, I just forgot for a minute.” I lied. Of course I didn’t remember, I still didn’t know what the heck they were talking about, but I couldn’t look like a fool in front of them, not again.
“Okay. Well I will see you guys later then.” Lisa said and she went towards Mike and gave him a kiss in the cheek then she came towards me and gave me one too. “Call me?” she said looking at me.
“Will do.” I replied back and she smiled and walked away.
“Well well well, what is going on here?” Mike asked.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“What am I talking about?” Mike said. “Muah, call me?” he said, imitating Lisa.
“Don’t be a fool. Go swing some bats and grab some balls, I am off to my writing workshop.” I said, basically sending him to hell.
“Fine, but we got to talk!” Mike said while walking away.
“Yeah yeah.” I said, smiling for some reason. I really didn’t know what I was doing. I just decided to follow my instincts. They say that’s a good thing to do, so I did. I started walking towards the left side of the school and to my surprise there was this huge building, a very colorful one to say the least, and it had a sign that read “Writers in the Making.” So I figured that is where I had to go. When I went in, a small guy wearing the coolest glasses I had ever seen, greeted me.
“Robert, what’s up my man?” He said.
“Hey…” I said kind of surprised, not knowing what to do or say at all.
“I started reading the first thirty pages of your script and man you are good. But there are some things we have to discuss, so let’s get right to it alright?” He said as we walked towards a table with two chairs. I noticed there were many tables around with two chairs as well and many of them were occupied by other students and teachers. The table had a digital display, within the table itself. He clicked some stuff and brought a script up which apparently I had written because it had my name on it. Then he turned the digital pages of the script to page thirteen. “Ok in this page right here, where you use my name, thank you very much.” I
looked at the page, which wasn’t really a page after all, but more like a digital display, and the only name I could see was David. So I figured David was his name.
“Hey no problem, David is a pretty cool name. And you are my mentor after all.” I said, trying to make him believe I knew what the heck was going on.
“I am flattered.” David said. “Well anyway, right here, you have to make the character come more to life. You introduce him pretty well, but some things are missing. He is too shallow. At first we think he is this tough guy, but then he is really sweet and tender. I mean, characters have their different moods, but this one jumps from moods too many times and we need him to be stable.” And he kept on going, giving me instructions on how to fix my script. He didn’t tell me exactly what to do, he said I needed to do that by myself, that way I was going to develop my skills, he just pointed out what he thought was wrong and what I could improve, so I could go from there.
“Anyway, deadline for the first draft is due at the end of this month, so you still have a little bit of time. But remember, we are shooting this thing by this summer, so get to it.” David said. I couldn’t believe my ears so I asked again.
“We are shooting it this summer?” I asked.
“Yeah, wasn’t that what we agreed on?” David asked.
“Yeah, yeah. I am just still surprised with it that’s all.” I asked.
“What are you talking about? You have done this quite a few times before.” David said.
“I know. It is just exciting every single time.” I said, but I really didn’t know at all. I didn’t know I had made movies before.
“I will let you be so you can do some final touches and I will get back to you in a few minutes.” David said.
“Alright. Thanks a lot man.” I said.
“Not a problem, that’s why I am here. Remember, just have fun.” David said smiling.
“Will do.” I said smiling back. I decided to take my time to learn how to use this digital table thing that was standing in front of me. While I was doing so I saw a file with my name on it, so I decided to open it. Apparently I had done over three other movies before this one. Each movie had its own folder. I opened one up and there was a trailer of the movie there. So I opened the trailer and when I was done watching it I realized my mouth was opened. I was astonished with what I had seen. I had witnessed an amazing movie trailer of a movie that I had written and directed. I couldn’t believe it. I was so full of joy it was unbelievable. I just wanted to look for the whole thing and watch it, but instead I decided not to get distracted any longer and I started reading what I had wrote thus far for this script.
It was a very interesting piece, which I am not really going to discuss about here, but I was impressed with my own work. It was called “Beyond Extinction”. I had taken David’s words seriously and I applied them while editing the script. I felt like it was a solid piece once I was done with it. David came and he checked, he was pretty impressed as well.
“See? This is what I am talking about. Great job. I will see you in a couple of days. Do your homework.” David said.
“Alright. See you around.” I said walking away. Exactly the minute I step foot out of the workshop building my phone rang. It was my mother.
“Honey, where are you?” My mom said over the video-phone.
“I just got out of the workshop mom, why what’s up?” I asked.
“Oh you stayed a little bit longer today?” She said and I looked at my watch, pressed the buttons so the time would show, and it was already 7:03 PM. Wow, how time flies when you are doing something you love, I thought.
“Yeah mom, I am sorry. I just had a lot of work to do today.” I said.
“Don’t worry. I was just calling to make sure everything was ok. Remember we have to wake up early tomorrow to do our duty work.” She said and I wasn’t sure what she meant but I just went with it.
“Alright, mom. I am on my way back home.” I said while I walked towards my car. I got into the car and said: “Home.” I was getting used to this lifestyle. I loved it already. In my way home I called Lisa, like I promised.
“Hey! I thought you weren’t going to call.” Lisa said smiling.
“Oh come on, why wouldn’t I?” I said jokingly.
“I don’t know. I am just messing with you. What you doing?” She asked.
“I am on my way home, just got out of the workshop.” I said.
“Wow, so late? I got out of mine like three hours ago.” She said.
“Yeah, we had a lot of advancements today though. The story is getting pretty interesting.” I said.
“Oh yeah? I bet it is. You are a wonderful writer.” She said smiling.
“Thanks.” I replied humbly. “So, how about you? How was your workshop?”
“Oh it was awesome. We did a new photo-shoot, the pictures came out amazing. Look.” She said and sent one over. I opened it on my phone and boy she was right, she looked stunning. I couldn’t stop staring at her. “Robert?”
“Ah? Yeah?” I said.
“You alright?” She said laughing.
“Yeah yeah. I am sorry, it is just…you look so…so gorgeous.” I said. Still stunned about how beautiful she looked.
“Oh don’t be silly, you are making me blush.” She said.
“No I am serious. I mean. Wow.” I said.
“Oh stop it.” She said smiling and before I knew it, I had arrived at my place.
“Anyway, I just got home. I was just calling to say hi.” I said.
“Alright then. I will see you tomorrow.” She said.
“Okay. Sweet dreams.” I said.
“You too. Good night.” She said.
“Night.” I said and we hung up.
That is all I remember of that day, the next thing I know I was eating breakfast at my house. I was still in the dream though. I am not sure what it was that I was eating, but it was really good. I am not a big fan of breakfast myself, but this was amazingly good.
“So you guys ready to work?” My mom asked. I wasn’t sure what she meant still, so I just decided to ask.
“What are we doing today?” I asked.
“We are going to do some garbage recovery and we are going to paint and build some houses.” My dad replied.
“Are you serious?” I asked not liking what I heard at all.
“Yeah. It is our turn today honey. You know that.” My mom said.
“Yeah…I guess so.” I said. So we finished our breakfasts and went out. When we got there, to the garbage recovery area, Mike was there with his family as well as Lisa and her family. I felt happy to see them, I felt happy to know I wasn’t the only one doing this stuff. We divided ourselves into groups of three. Mike, Lisa and I were in one team, while the parents divided themselves into the remaining two groups.
We went in two different trucks through houses to pick up the garbage. Lisa was the one driving our truck, while Mike and I got off the truck to pick up the garbage and throw it into the truck. Amazingly enough, once we threw the garbage into the truck it would disintegrate and disappear into thin air. It looked amazing. Garbage wasn’t burnt, it was just disintegrated.
We continued like that for a couple hours until we were pretty much done with a lot, and I do mean A LOT, of houses. Then we went to deliver the trucks back to its respective places, although there was no one there to receive them. While we walked out of the place, I noticed everyone in front of me placed their hands in a digital screen that hung besides the door.
“Thank you for your support.” A female voice said, alongside the person’s name, after they had placed their hand there. I really didn’t know why they did this, or what the purpose was, but I decided to do it too. “Thank you for your support, Robert”. I just smiled and thought “You welcome”.
We decided to stop in an eating area. It was much like the area Lisa and I ate in the shopping, I mean, seeking mall. It had no area to really go and ask for your food. You just used a little screen and ordered
, and so on and so forth.
“We really did that faster than ever.” Mike’s dad said while we were eating.
“We did, didn’t we?” My dad said.
“Maybe people used less stuff this week.” Mike said.
Conversations like that kept on going. Everyone liked everyone and nobody fought even once. Everyone was having fun, everyone looked happy and I couldn’t help but stare and analyze each of them. For a second, I couldn’t understand how they were so happy in such a day, we were picking up garbage and they didn’t seem to care. Then I stopped to think and I realized that it didn’t bother me either, I felt happy as well. Those two hours went by pretty quickly and I laughed like I hadn’t laugh in my life.
“Alright, time to go.” Lisa’s dad said.
“Part two.” My mom added.
We went into this deserted area. When I say deserted, I mean there wasn’t really any civilization there. There were some houses half-done and others were already done. Our group, Lisa, Mike and I, started painting one of the houses while the other two groups kept building the half-built houses.
While we were painting Lisa painted my arm.
“Hey! I am not a wall.” I said jokingly.
“Oh oops. You looked like one. My bad.” She said laughing.
“Ha ha…real funny.” I said and painted her back.
“Hey!” She said laughing and then she kept trying to paint me back but she couldn’t. I manage to paint her some more but she failed to paint me. We went around like that for a couple of minutes when my parents interrupted us.
“Having fun?” My mom said smiling.
“Sorry mom.” I said embarrassed. “We will get back to painting right away.”
“Why are you sorry? That’s part of this, to have some fun. Don’t worry about it.” Dad said but I really didn’t know how to respond to that. They actually didn’t care that we were fooling around.
“Anyway, we came here to tell you guys that it is your turn to build, our turn to paint.” My mom said.
“Oh, alright.” Lisa said. “Let’s go.”
Mike and I followed Lisa. My parents had done a fantastic and fast job in one of the houses. We just had to continue it. So we started where they left off. I couldn’t believe how, in such an advanced time, we still had to build and paint with our own hands instead of using robots and stuff. So by the end of the day, I couldn’t help but ask my parents.
“How come we have to do all this by hand? Isn’t there some kind of technology that can do it faster?” I asked.
“Oh of course there is son. Only important buildings are done with those, though.” Dad said.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because then we couldn’t have none of this fun. Plus, to be honest, things get done better when they are manmade rather than robot made.” My mom said while giving me a wink.
After both those answers I started analyzing the whole day and to be honest, there wasn’t one single moment I wished I was somewhere else. I really did have fun doing those stuff that normally I would hate doing. I don’t know why this was the case, maybe it was because I was with my loved ones. It definitely was fun. Not only that, but it did help our families bond even more. We were one huge family, doing one huge work, for one huge civilization and boy…it felt hugely great.