[asphaltgambler]

For the PP brain trust. I've been reflecting a lot lately on my last 10 years regarding my roller- coaster ride in my professional life, also to some extent my personal life. To the point I'm hard on myself, have high goals and thus high expectations. Those things that drive me are the product of my parents who fit squarely into The Greatest Generation.

The core of that is this: You can be anything you want to be, attain anything you desire as long as you work hard, educate yourself and don't give up.

Example: In the late 90's I had enough of the retail car business seeing that ultimately I was making everyone else wealthy. I put myself through many IT related short courses and found a help desk position with an attorney's firm. I thought I had succeeded until the firm was sold just after the IT implosion.......a double whammy.

Early 2000's I couldn't buy an IT job, very reluctantly went back to what I know but going on to work for a very prestigious BMW indie shop, making the most I ever had until the end of 2007 when the housing crisis pretty much did that business ( as most others) in.

Fast forward a few years. I scored a part-time gig with county government I currently work for now. Due to budget cuts in the division I was working, there was no full time position available even after 2 years of busting my @ss for pennies.

I then applied and accepted a position with the same county, but I'm essentially a mechanic. Also I had to start at the bottom there as that's how the 'system' works in the economy where good full time jobs are few, the willing applicants .............hundreds.

So my thought is I didn't score the full time IT office job but I did score a good position with a department that is considered essential. There is a lot more heart break, sweat, brokenness and disappointment that would take too long to explain. I'm struggling with at this point if I've failed or just not succeeded in my goals