Archive for June, 2005

I’m now 3 weeks into my new job. I’m loving it. As with any IT job, there are projects and problems that arrise that can cause serious headaches, but I’m enjoying it still.

It dawned on me a week or so ago that TACF has been the perfect learning environment for me. When I left high school I had no money, neither had my parents. At that stage we weren’t landed immigrants, so I don’t think I could even apply for a loan easily. True or not, that was my mindset. Add to that the fact that I hate school and would rather never go back if I didn’t have to.

So, upon finishing high school, the world of work was the place I was heading for. I had to complete one course at night school because of having too many spares the previous semester, so I started looking for a day job. I tried at Future Shop initially, because I had done a co-op placement as a Service Technician. However, they weren’t hiring.

Enter Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship. They were looking for a Summer Camp Administrator to manage bookings of the TACF camp site, and to assist in running the church’s own summer camp program. After 3 months of learning to be an office boy, the job dissolved with the selling of the campground. At the same point, a job opportunity came up in the Maintenance department.

I took it, and spent the next 8 months learning to work with my hands. Woodworking, building, plumbing, electrical work, bricklaying, painting, toilet cleaning, and everything in-between.

Following that the long time employee in the Mailroom decided he’d had enough. Seeing as I’d volunteered there a little, I put in an application. I got the job, and spent a further 8 months up to my eyeballs in stressful neverending work. The mail and shipping industry is not one I will eagerly jump into again, though I might some day. This job was pure learning though. I made deals with salesmen, negotiated for better prices, working mostly alone and with little supervision. At some points I ran into problems with my boss, causing sleep loss. I moved the office from one building to another, pretty much single-handedly. Again, this was pure learning. I dealt with so much office politics, salesman politics, financial limitations, the joys and woes of decision making, and all sorts of things.

I enjoyed that job for a while, but eventually it bored me. The problems with my boss certainly didn’t help, and my job duties were increased with no pay raise.

In the middle of this, I was approached by my new boss, and very tentatively offered a job. The Network Administrator at the time was getting ready to go on maternity leave (men get their own maternity leave, don’t forget it), and so someone was needed to replace him. This tickled my fancy like not much else, so I did everything in my power, nude-dancing excluded, to get the job. The good Lord has seen fit to bless me a heck of a lot in this lifetime of mine, so I ended up with the job.

Now I’m looking back, around, and forward. I’ve worked at TACF for over a year, good times and bad, and am loving it today. I’m excited to go to work, because I’m getting paid to do something that I love. I’ve learnt so much, without having stepped foot in a University, and I’ve been paid the whole time. I’m in an awesome cell group, with guys who are likeminded and provide good fellowship. I’m getting married in three months, and am feeling more and more like I might just be ready for it.

Thank you Jesus, for providing me with an education perfectly suited to who I am. Thank you Jesus for providing me with a beautiful woman who for reasons still unknown to me said yes when I asked her to marry me.
Thank you Mum and Dad for introducing me to a God who made me just so he could love me. And thanks for trucking me around the world at a young age teaching me to communicate and read and think.

And thank you TACF for being my school.