The astounding story of Learning to Read, is about the struggles of a young boy named Frederick Douglass. The story follows the young man through the struggles of a young boy, without parents, learning not only how to be an adult, but to have the gift of an education. Douglass started out as a young boy who was being taught by his slave masters wife how to read. Then one day the lessons stopped completely, so then Douglass took his education into his own hands. He would sit and absorb information in all the time and people had no clue.
He also used witty tactics to bribe or even challenge the boys on the block to learn more and more. This bread I used to bestow upon the hungry little urchins, who, in return, would give me that more valuable bread of knowledge. This quote, I feel, reminds me of the best job I have ever had in my life. Which is the story of how I got my first job on a yacht. This story reminds me of my childhood, where I would go out on the boat for any reason that I could. Most of the time I was out on the water I wanted to be able to do the things that my dad and granddad were doing.
After ten years of learning from them, and many others, I achieved my dream job at the age of sixteen years old. The job was First Mate on a sport fishing vessel. This was the job I had always dreamed of because I rarely, if ever, got to go fishing in the ocean. Even though we could not afford to go all the time like I wanted to, my parents would find a way to do it every year. Most years we would go out on the big boat that my dads boss owned. I can remember wishing away the summer so I could go on our annual trip before school starts. This is what started my drive for getting a job on a boat.
I remember the first time I went out fishing in the ocean. It was with my dad and uncle, and the best day of fishing I had ever had was that day. All the new fish to fight, and see for the first time amazed me. Another thing that amazed me was the pure size and power of the fish in the ocean. Most of my basic offshore fishing knowledge came from the old man that lived up the street from us. He was all the time fishing, and my mom, for a while, thought that was his only job. He would always come home every weekend with something new that I had never seen before.
Once I befriended him, I would always go every Friday and Sunday nights to his house to just learn. On Friday nights I was learning how to tie a rig, or how to catch, or cure bait. On Sunday nights I would go to his house to see what you can get in return from Friday nights knowledge. This leads us to the trip I took with my dad and his boss just before my sophomore year in high school. This, like the many trips before, was awesome. We caught a lot of different fish and just had a great time. Then at dinner, later that night, and my dads boss asked me what job I would want if I could have any.
This is when I told him that I was fascinated with ocean fishing and would love to be a mate on a fishing boat. He then asked me if I would be okay living on a boat and moving all over the coast to do the job, I said yes. Then my dads boss and my dad got up and walked outside for a smoke break. Little did I know he was trying to convince my dad to let me work on the boat during my breaks from school. When they returned to the table both men had smiles on their faces. At this point I am trying to figure out what happened outside for both men to look like that.
Thats when they hit me with the question, Would you like a job on my boat starting next summer? I quickly said yes. I then asked my dad if thats what they talked about outside and he said yes. He then congratulated me and said now we just have to convince your mom to let you live on a boat on breaks from school. That was a challenging task, but in the end she let me leave home to pursue my dream job. Even though i had been fishing on the boat since i was old enough to swim, i had to learn how to fish all over again. This was a small hurdle that i had to learn to live around, but made me a better fisherman.
About six months into my new job my boss asked me if I would want to get my captains license. I quickly said when can I start logging my hours? He then told me that he had kept my hours for me since i started. I was then at the needed hour requirement and had to go to Florida to take the final test. I passed the first time and was awaiting a drug test to come back so that i could receive the license that took me a year and a half to get. When i got my captains license it opened the door to not only a pay raise, but opened many other opportunities.
Right after I got my licence the captain of the boat I was working on retired and I then assumed the helm. Only eighteen years old i was the captain on a sixty foot sport fishing yacht. The boat itself was worth was worth around a million dollars. I thought the idea of an eighteen year old being in charge of a million dollar yacht was crazy at first, but then soon realized that the job was not that hard at all. It was then i realized all the times I sat in the co-pilot seat and just watched and listened that I had been soaking up all the information that was in front of me.
When I made this realization it made sense, that I WAS qualified to pilot this boat because i had soaked up the knowledge that was sitting right in front of me the whole time. In conclusion, the story of Douglas was similar to my story. I may be better off then he started, but we both had a drive to learn what we so badly wanted to learn. Which I find awesome. Though the stories have nothing, whatsoever, in common they both came from individuals that had a drive, the drive to learn to to do what they wanted.
