I was going to HVAC school right after I got out of high school.
I wasn’t doing very good at first.
I was joking around with the guys and late for class several times. The instructor called me aside one afternoon, and asked if I really wanted to be in the class. If I hadn’t wanted to be there, i wouldn’t have paid the admission fee. He wasn’t happy with my snarky remark. He told me that if I was late one more time, or caught joking around during class, he was going to kick me out. I was embarrassed to be called out, but more embarrassed to think I could be kicked out of school. I went home and talked to me dad and asked if he could talk to the HVAC instructor. Dad told me I was a man now, and I had to fend for myself. He wasn’t going to go to the teacher and ask for a second chance for his little boy. I was only eighteen, and I wasn’t sure I was a man yet. I felt like I did when I was in high school. He said it was time I grew up and took some responsibility. Neither he nor mom forced me to go to school right out of high school. I had made the choice and I had to live with it. I liked working with HVAC, but I still wanted to have fun. He said there was plenty of time for me to have fun after school or after work. I heard what he said, and I went to my instructor the following day. I asked him if he would give me a second chance. Six months later, I was graduating at the top of my class.