1 post tagged “changing decision”

What decision changed the course of your life? 
Submitted by Ally.

Back in 2001, I was bored and unchallenged by my job as an automotive inspector in a car sub-assembly plant. I was dating a ho-hum electrician apprentice who worked there with me, which was against everything I had promised myself I would do when I began working in a car factory two years before. I took the job because my scholarship program ended and I was out of money for college and the electric bill and rent, too.  I was verging destitution when my father made his yearly speech to me about why I should take a job working in an auto plant. He was a union rep in the other major car plant in our all-American city in the heart of the rust belt.  Yes, it was dirty, sweltering hot, hard physical labor and I would probably be sexually harassed as a 20 year old in a car factory, BUT (he said), if I did it right, working in an auto plant could be the ticket to a better life for me. At $30 an hour, I could buy a house, pay for college out of pocket and quit my job there when I was ready to move on to better things.  Only, I knew the truth. Everybody in our town who worked in that car factory had said they would only work in that shithole for a few years to make ends meet, and then pursue their dreams after squirreling away a few dollars.  And, of course, nobody left.  But, I was out of money and my job working the customer service desk at a local general store for $7/hour was progressively putting me in a hole I couldn't climb my way out of. 
So...I took my dad up on his offer to get me a job, and it was more miserable than I could have even imagined.  I worked six days a week and the physical labor wasn't the worst part.  The sexual harassment was unbearable. The company had a very "serious" zero tolerance policy that was...in the end, merely words like so many bullshit, shiny company policies that mean nothing.  I promised myself every day that I worked there that I was making my way to something better, but in reality, I was like any other 21 year old faced with riches beyond their wildest dreams. I pissed it away at Abercrombie, bars with my friends and weekend trips to Chicago, the Flats in Cleveland or Put-in-Bay island in the summer.  And before I knew it, two years had passed and I was no further ahead financially, I was absolutely miserable every single day that I had to drag my carcass through the deafening hallways of the plant, with the scent of acrid, burning metal and chemicals singeing my sinuses. I had accidentally fallen into a relationship with a very boring man 10 years my senior who I could barely muster the motivation to see outside of work. I frequently pondered how I managed to get myself into such a predicament.
I had managed to make a good friend in the two years since I had started working in that factory.  We were bound together by the similar misfortune of being young and working in a car plant. We used to sit together at lunches and visit one another on the job when one of us had wrapped up early.  We would sometimes help one another reach our quotas for the day so we could go hunker down in the locker rooms and lounge around, reading magazines or discussing weekend plans. Her name was Kim.  In January 2001, Kim and I were sitting around after finishing up a grueling day and discussion turned to spring break.  We had both taken our fair share of spring break vacations to stinkholes like Panama City or even Cancun, but Kim and I both felt we were entitled to a better vacation that year. Maybe a trip to California?  We wanted to do something crazy to reward ourselves and we made a pact that we would go SOMEwhere that year, and it wouldn't be a car trip to the Florida coast.  A few days later, we finally settled on it: we would go to Hawaii.  Now, I had fantasized many times with various girlfriends about backpacking in Europe or making a trek to South America just for the hell of it, but they were always just that-daydreams.  But Kim and I continued to mull Hawaii.  We debated the merits, the cost, the probability of getting two weeks off of work..it became a daily topic of discussion.  I should mention here that during mine and Kim's musings on going to Hawaii, I approached my boyfriend Andy and mentioned it to him.  What did he think?  I had been begging him to go somewhere with me for the entire six months that we had been together.  He would never capitulate, and would say things like, "I just want to work on my house.  A vacation seems frivolous." When I finally told him that Kim and I were considering going to Hawaii, he said, "Ok. That sounds nice." (I did mention before that he was a dud). I'm not sure if he really thought we would go, but Kim and I had our minds made up.  We decided that we would go to Hawaii for 2 weeks in June 2001.
I remember the feeling when I booked those air tickets. Excitement quivered through every inch of my body, and I had to print the itinerary to believe that we were really doing this.  Handy Andy barely made a peep when I came flying into his living room, waving the tickets like a crazy woman.  For the next three months after I booked the tickets, Kim and I worked overtime and saved every penny.  We got Hawaii books from the library and rented travel DVDs. We spent every weekend discussing wardrobes, swimsuits, and searching tourism websites.  When I finally packed my bags and prepared to board that plane in Detroit, Andy sat in the terminal with Kim and me (those last few months when you could accompany passengers to the gate!) and slumped into his seat, sullen and pouty.  "I never thought you'd actually go" was all he could muster. "I wish it was me." At that point, nothing could bring Kim and I down, not even the mopey boyfriend waving goodbye to me in the terminal.  We scribbled in journals the whole three legs of that trip, from Detroit to Fort Worth, Forth Worth to San Francisco, and finally San Fran to Honolulu. We sampled our first Mai Tais, free of charge from the wonderful flight attendant who shared in our excitement over our first trip to the islands.

And, finally we landed!!

snorkeling in the islands

Hawaiian coastline

a hidden waterfall

Ok, so yes, the pictures make it look like a life changing vacation, but that's not why I chose this trip as the topic of this blog.  It's because, in addition to lifelong memories I created thanks to breathtaking scenery, the scent of plumeria from the trees that permeated every street, and Don Ho and Brother Iz drifting through every speaker in every shop and restaurant, I also met my future husband in Hawaii.

But that's the subject of another blog.