An Encouraging Start

A quick check of Technorati this morning brought me to a new blogger, Pajama Pundit. Only two posts up, so far, but the author is literate, and I like her attitude:

I don’t see Americans as valuing education nowadays. Unfortunately, many teenagers and young people I see have this terrible creeping sense of entitlement–because I’m American, in the land of the free, I’m owed something. Then they end up having to work at Wal-Mart, bitching and moaning all the while, conveniently forgetting there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.

“Oh yeah?” you might say. “And where do YOU work, Ms. Smart-Ass?”

Currently, I work as a pharmacy technician at a local institutional pharmacy. But for most of the past twenty years, I worked in low-paying service jobs: fast food, retail, delivery driver. This was because I dropped out of school in the 8th grade, although I later got my GED. Finally getting fed up with what I was doing, and realizing I was not getting any younger, I decided to shoot for a tech position.

This involved four months of study, one and two hours a day, for the Pharmacy Tech Certification test. I am not terribly good at math, so this level of immersion was necessary. I studied all on my own, with no help from anyone, and paid for the test myself. And passed it, by crackey! I was rewarded with a substantial raise–in fact, I’m making more now than I ever have. I now have access to good insurance, paid vacations and holidays, 401(k), and easier and more secure employment than I had before. All because I put my nose to the grindstone and decided to make something of myself.

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You can swallow your pride and take a temporary low-paying job (hey, any money is better than none), and retrain yourself for something else. Screw your age. It can still be done.

I did.

There’s more to the post than just that, but THAT is the attitude we need more of.

Keep an eye on this one.