Springfield is a college town – in case you didn’t know that.
We have:
Missouri State
Drury University
Evangel University
Baptist Bible College
Central Bible College
Ozarks Technical College
Vatterott College
Cox School of Nursing
And I’m sure I’ve missed a few more technical colleges.
All of these colleges are crammed into our “little” city. (We’re actually the third largest city in Missouri, but you rarely hear that fact because we’re ignored a lot of the time. Which … is actually okay with me because the media is lame to begin with).
So when Fall rolls around, the college students start POURING in. Which is fine – it’s great for our economy, not so great for our traffic flow. But whatever We quickly adapt.
Now that Dude has graduated from high school …
*Side Note: Now that Dude is 18, I really don’t have a problem calling him by his real name on this blog. I want to, but I don’t think it’s wise given this blog comes up pretty easily in Google (not because it’s popular but because I’ve been blogging for nearly seven years now) and I don’t want a potential employer googling Dude’s name and this blog comes up. It’s not that I have anything to hide, per se, but it might just be too weird to watch baby videos of a potential candidate … in case you were wondering why I still refer to my oldest son as “Dude.”
… and has applied for 17 jobs (at last count – and yes, we’re keeping track of where he has been applying as well as the dates he applied through an Excel sheet), but hasn’t actually landed a job yet, he has some time on his hands. Time that he WILL NOT waste away by playing video games all day long.
Since his long-term goal is computers, Kevin suggested (as in STRONGLY suggested, as in you don’t really have a choice until you get a job suggested) that Dude come up to the office every weekday afternoon and work toward his A+ certification. (Computer places won’t hire you to work on computers unless you have this certification). He’s also dabbling in Java and PHP, too. (Those are computer programs, in case you don’t speak geek. HA!)
We really expected him to complain about this “arrangement,” but so far, Kevin and I think he’s actually relieved to have something TO DO while he bides his time on the job front. I mean, playing games is fun and all, but doing it every day, all day long, has GOT to get old after a while.
I think he likes the independence, too. He comes and goes as he pleases (as long as he gets to the office around 1-ish and stays until 4:30 – 5-ish) and he drives his own car. We wanted to give him a taste of what it’s like to leave the house and report somewhere. I want to eventually make him get to the office earlier – there’s really no excuse NOT to. We wake him up at 8:00 (because if we didn’t, he’d sleep until noon every day and if he wants to do that on his days off after his gets a job, fine. But until he gets a job, he’s not sleeping all day and staying up all night &ndas