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I won't try to talk him out of it…. Nope.
I was the youngest of five kids (4 boys, one girl). My sister never had an interest in surveying but my brothers each attempted to work with/for my Dad in our beloved profession and each didnÛªt last long. After all the weekend and after school jobs I was burned out on surveying before I was an adult. For two years after high school, I had little to do with surveying. And one day, the survey bug bit me. That was nearly 30 years ago. We have four kids, 2 boys, 2 girls. I took our daughters in the field with me (and to the office) a time or two but it was obvious they werenÛªt interested. The oldest (HeÛªll be 30 this year) worked for me for a couple years out of school but drifted to other work interests. So that left Matt. HeÛªs number 3 in the pecking order and the youngest boy (just turned 20). I took him in the field a few times but again, I thought there was no interest. He drifted around after high school and never really settled on a type of work. 8 or 10 months ago, he needed a jobÛ? Badly. We were really busy, so he was hired as a ÛÏbrush apeÛ. He took the job out of desperation and I never expected him to stick around more than 6 weeks. In the first month, he learned to run a total station and shortly after, a robot. Now his crew chief has him in regular rotation on the gun (each crew member takes a turn on the gun at regular intervals so that they don’t get burned out). Then it bit him. HeÛªs got the bug. For the past three years, I have been mostly working about 40 miles from home with the occasional job in my home county. Matt happened to be on the crew that started a farm boundary survey near home that is retracing some of my DadÛªs work from 30+ years ago. He sent me the following yesterday in a text:
ÛÏCan I say how awesome it feels to follow behind Grandad? ItÛªs so cool to shoot the same pins they shot and everything, some 30 years later. Dad, I think I have found the right profession.Û
I wasnÛªt expecting that text at all. I didnÛªt know whether I wanted to hug his neck or take my belt off and beat his @$$ for wanting to get into this profession. It sunk in for a bit and I settled for hugging his neck. Honestly, IÛªll be extremely proud if he makes it his profession. Heck, as long as he never expects to get rich, heÛªll do fine.
My apologies. This ended up a little longer than I intended. I figured it was worth tellingÛ? especially to a crowd of other surveyors.
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