Photo Credit: © Can Stock Photo / kamchatka
In May of 1984, I was a typical, overanxious young man who had been out of college for a year and had yet to find “long-term employment.” I had worked hard in school. I had good grades and a strong resume, and had studied up on all the tricks needed for success in the business trade. I couldn’t understand why people weren’t lining up to hire me; it might have to do with the fact that, other than college activities and writing 20-page papers, I didn’t know much about anything yet.
My Big Break
I read that Cleveland Metroparks was looking for a seasonal (six months) project manager with some background in legal research and technical writing, and I was proficient at both. I thought this may not be the Wall Street job I was expecting to land, but in the meantime it seemed like a decent place to mark time. Little did I know how that opportunity would humble me and readjust my expectations from the first day.
The gentleman who hired me was a well-educated, extremely humorous man who clearly loved his job and all that went with a fondness for nature and the proper management of land and water. My assignment was to assess and categorize the legal abstracts that described the parcels of land that comprised the park system and determine where the agency had mineral rights (and obligations) to those properties. By locating the wells and logging their status and condition, the parks could apply for a grant from the state and get those potential hazards plugged and safely closed.