They refused to even acknowledge my career for years
When I was growing up there weren’t a lot of options available to me as far as career choices. I came from a lower class household that wasn’t going to be able to send me off to college, so most professional careers were immediately off the table. Then, I was restricted by the region that we lived in. There weren’t many opportunities for working in a factory or doing other manual labor if you wanted to earn a livable wage. In essence, I found that I could work as a retail specialist at a local store… or I could go into the heating and cooling industry as a professional certified heating, cooling, and air quality control specialist. I knew several guys who had gone into the heating and cooling industry, and they were making good money despite coming from similar lowly circumstances. Eventually I decided that trade school was the best option for me. I would learn to maintain and repair furnaces and AC units for the masses. I would be on time and trustworthy with my heating, cooling, and air quality control equipment repair work. I would be the temperature control technician that this town had always been waiting for. Unfortunately, my family didn’t agree with this plan. They wanted me to work at the local Dairy Queen as I saved up for business school. Nothing I did in the heating and cooling industry ever pleased them. They refused to even acknowledge my career for years. That is, until their central HVAC broke and they needed free professional repair.