My parents had dreams of me going to a Division A school to play sports, maybe even end up in the Football Hall of Fame, which is located right here in South Bend.
I never got good grades, mostly because I never paid attention, but so long as I was athletic and good at sports, nobody seemed to care about my grades.
Then I blew out my knee during practice, and the doctors told me I would never return to full strength and flexibility. I could no longer rely on sports, and I sucked at getting an education, so what could I do? One of the coaches gave me the contact info for a small heating and cooling service in South Bend that was looking for strong young workers. If I am being honest I don’t think I ever would have been good enough to play ball for Notre Dame, so maybe this accident was for the best. I came to learn that the HVAC industry in South Bend is highly in demand, which means good jobs and good pay! The fact I didn’t have good grades didn’t matter, so long as I showed up, worked hard, and did my best to learn the nuance of HVAC repair. My size played a big factor, because there is a lot of heavy lifting in this line of work, and with all the new construction in South Bend we never got a day off. South Bend is one of the great cities in America to be a sports fan, so between that and my burgeoning career, I am very happy right now.