Runneth Over. Paul S. Wood

      A Story to tell

      I used to wake up dreading the long day of work ahead, at one of the biggest cable companies ever established. I had learned my pace, and the pace of business. I was good not only at handling an angry customer, but at managing my time between crawling in the crawlspace, climbing my ladder, replacing equipment in the home and hurrying off to the next job site, and the next angry customer.

      I had learned how the strict metrics worked, and how I could beat them if I hustled, and used my troubleshooting skills quickly and effectively without getting caught up by the lengthy stories the customer would want to tell me about how many times their internet had went out over the weekend. I was becoming a beast, I was getting raises, awards, respect, I basically had the world in the palm of my hands after a few hard years of grinding.

      I had seen other guys like myself above me, that had just gotten a handle on their pace, and the only thing I ever saw stop them was an injury. As fun as it seemed to be out of work relaxing on the couch, I knew that the goal of making lots of money and climbing the ladder to success would be ruined if I ever sustained a real injury. Much less, I would be injured, which could prevent me from playing with my son Jordan who was just 6 years old. Or maybe just prevent me from doing normal things that everyday people are able to do. So naturally it scared me. While other crew members decided to go into leadership or other areas that I wasn't quite sure I wanted to be in yet, I found comfort in becoming a safety champion.

      A safety champion is a guy who has managed to prevent any injuries for an extended period of time, and maybe taught others the rules and practices of safety. Instead of giving speeches on E-waste, or on how everyone needed to fill out their time cards more accurately, I could speak about how not to drive distracted, or how to check for foreign voltage on objects so a tech wouldn't get shocked. Ladder safety was paramount since we climbed everyday, and honestly it scared me the most because the 28' ladder was no joke fully extended, and you could easily be killed if you fell.

      I had managed to pick up a few safety champion awards and a nice windbreaker pullover with the company logo, and a shield that read "safety champion" with a graphic of a lineman on a pole. It became my mission to never get hurt, and I was doing great at it. My routine had become a bit mundane but I was now living the easy life, knowing what I was doing, making every customer happy, making my bosses happy, and making a decent wage finally. What was next? I was being pushed towards leadership, being told I'm a natural leader, I was complimented, but feared dealing with the politics, as well as all the escalation customers, and I was told it involved a lot of work outside of work. Which I was not very keen on.

      I had an interview, and knew it wasn't right for me, but wanted to progress. I was effectively flailing, like a fish out of water, not sure which direction to go within the company, but needing to figure it out and commit soon. Little did I know what God had in store for me. Just around the corner would be a life changing event. It would not only solidify my beliefs in the Lord, but would propel me to new heights in my life and change my outlook on many things. Such an amazing series of events happened so fast, and were so amazing it propelled me to keep track in my mind, and tell every poor bastard who seemed the slight bit interested. I don't know if to just keep it fresh in my mind, or to share and see what people would say, since it was so out of the ordinary, I felt I really had a story to tell.