Vintage Ad

Letting Go of Caddying

When I first started caddying in the transitional summer from 7th to 8th grade, I was really eager to be the best caddy I can be. This position would be my first actual job, and provide me with my first source of income since shoveling houses and doing chores at my house for money, and it would have also given me many benefits including prizes, networking, and even scholarships. This was multiplied by the fact that I already had friends that were very successful caddies, and I aimed to take after them. Despite all my motivation and effort however, the tolls and expectations of being a caddy were simply too much. On my golf course at least, the caddie master expected the caddies to devote their entire summers and the beginning/ending parts of the school year to it. He wanted us to come in every day at 6:00 AM and potentially stay until 4:00 or 5:00, sit in a crowded and stuffy caddie shack the entire time, and to not complain if you didn't get a loop after 2 or 3 days. This was worsened by the fact that the process of selecting which caddies would get loops was based on the idea that everybody would put their name on a list when they walked in, and names would randomly be plucked out. But, it just so happened that mostly the highest ranking caddies, with a few new caddies thrown in, would randomly be selected first. By the time that the pool of caddies was diluted so much that the low ranking caddies would be guaranteed a spot, the honor caddies would come back, put their name on the list, and be 'randomly' selected again. Also, caddies weren't allowed to work on Mondays, their one day of the week off, but the caddie master would still expect the caddies to come in on that day and play golf on the golf course and would judge and criticize any caddy that didn't. I really tried my best to be a good worker and respect standards that were expected of me, but his expectations were simply too much. I wanted to be able to sleep in some days and go to the beach with my family or hang out with friends on another. I wanted to be able to have a flexible schedule and a boss that was willing to accommodate to my needs and not pretend to not punish those who didn't devote their lives to the golf course. However, after two years of doing my best to satisfy his expectations and still be able to relax, I realized that he was fixed in his methods and that I would not progress at all in the golf course if I remained and continued doing it as I was. I decided that by the next summer I would be old enough to become a lifeguard, and was able to transition to a job that I was proud to do with coworkers and managers that respected me and my time. When I first started caddying, I wanted to be a good caddie and rise through the ranks and become friends with many of the members I worked for. I wanted to be able to earn money through honest labor and improve my work ethic. I wanted to have a chance to get the Chik Evans Scholarship which would've paid up to $100,000 of my college tuition over 4 years. I wanted to be able to look back on my experiences with pride and content. I wanted to do all of it, but the unreasonable expectations and deniability of any punishments for not reaching those high expectations was too much, but it did lead me on to do better things.

Proper and Incorrect Teacher Emails

To my teachers (theirs more then 1 of u so.this is qiucker than writin youre first names)

I canot come in to class next week on friday because , there will be a urgent unexpected emergency that I will need to goto. Since whats gonna happen is totally unexpected i think its only fare that u people don't not not forget to refuse to count me absent on those days and, Ms. Jane (I forgot you're last name lol XD), if you could give me a 100% on our final essay due that day that would be totally rad. I will be in a very bad emotional state that day n u will be awful people if you take advantage of me in that situation so u will all do as I ask.

Truly,
your guys's favorite student [u all should no who this is}





Dr Walts,

I am sorry to inform you that I will be a little late to our scheduled class today, January 30th. I had a necessary doctors appointment scheduled during my break today but due to several unforeseen circumstances I will come in about 15 minutes late. I will have a doctors note ready and am willing to accept any consequences, I would just like to let you know beforehand.

Sincerely,
Adam Sadek

Letter from Birmingham Jail Freewrite

"In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: 1)collection of facts to determine whether injustices are alive; 2)negotiation; 3)self-purification; and 4) direct action. We have gone through all of these steps in Birmingham...Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of police brutality is known in every section of the country. Its unjust treatment of Negroes in the courts is a notorious reality. There have been more unsolved bombings of negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any city in this nation. these are the hard, brutal, and unbelievable facts. On the basis of these conditions Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers. But the political leaders consistently refused to engage in good faith negotiation."

Martin Luther King fights off criticism given to him about his current position inside of a jail in a fairly standard way. He starts off by saying that the reason he's in the jail is that he was simply doing what he thought was right, and also being supported by a large number of individuals in his decision. He then goes on to talk about how his goal is to combat the social and physical injustices thrown upon African Americans through different acts like bombings and olive brutality. He also describes his plan for Birmingham through the steps necessary and how the town meets all the prerequisites. He states the conditions in which his mission and motives were brought us un-ignorable and unbelievable. He then further defends his actions by saying peaceful negotiations were already attempted but ignored. He does all this to set the scene for the rest of his letter.

College Writing 2 Declaration of Independence Assignment

Simple:
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power.

Compound:
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat their substance.

Complex:
He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholes and necessary for the public good.

Compound-Complex:
He has forbidden his governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained;and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend them.

Analyzing A Source

My quote is taken from a TedTalk video about the reasons why people should not be discouraged by the prospects or repercussions of failure and should instead strive to focus on their accomplishments instead. When the quote starts, she was giving a presentation on how many people had supposedly impossible dreams but achieved them very quickly. She said this to introduce the idea that many things are possible, but there may be many accidents along the way. Then she says "6 of the 8 Atlas Rockets blew up on the pad, after 11 complete mission failures we got our first images from space, and on that first flight we got more data than all the U2 missions combined" to solidify the idea that even genius scientists can make extreme mistakes when doing something completely new, but in the end they will eventually yield progress (4:20). This is relevant to my conversation because in becoming an airline pilot, I will be faced with many failures, be they not getting a particular job, not being able to learn/get a certification on my first try, or other kinds of failures that are largely out of my control, but if I want to be truly successful, ill need to look past that and focus on the end goal of being a pilot. I should learn from my mistakes, but I should put more emphasis on the net result than all the mistakes I made getting that result.

Interview Answers

Adam, I've got some answers for you.  I hope this fulfills your need.  

Rick Mladic

1. What kind of effects have you noticed that stress has on you and you're crew-mates' ability to perform their job and has it been a detriment to your health? 

During the course of my career, I personally encountered periods of high stress associated with job conditions, but they never created a lasting problem for me because I was always well trained to cope with the situations in which I found myself.  I learned to rely on my training and knowledge and was always able to manage the situations.  I have encountered pilots who had a harder time handling stressful situations.  In one particularly emergency situation, one of the pilots on the flight became so traumatized, that he was unable to relax in the cockpit after the event and had to retire from flying altogether.  On the same emergency flight, we had several flight attendants who quit flying after developing a fear of flying following the flight. 

Stress from off-the-job conditions can also affect crewmember performance on the job.  I knew a pilot who was going through a nasty divorce and he had a hard time concentrating on his job because he was so pre-occupied with the divorce proceedings.

2. Have you experienced fierce competition applying for jobs or trying to increase in rank in your company? Do you know if the amount of competition has stayed the same or changed since leaving your field?

At the time I was applying for my job at the airlines, there were many furloughed pilots available and looking for employment.  Competition was fierce, and I did whatever I could to stand out from the crowd.  I had a minor advantage in that I was actively flying a four engine jet transport aircraft in the Air National Guard at the time, so I had exactly the kind of experience for which the airlines were looking. 

As for increasing in rank or advancement of position, most major airlines today are unionized, and as such, advancement is regulated by the terms of a labor contract and seniority within the company.  When your seniority justifies an advancement to a higher position, you simply submit a “bid” for that position, and are awarded it.  There are no “merit promotions” for union pilots. 

On the other hand, there have been times in the past when the airlines hired pilots with little or no experience due to rapid growth and a reduction in the number of qualified pilots unemployed at the time.  It’s a very cyclical industry.  We may very well be approaching a time when there will be a shortage of pilots. 

3. Have you ever found that your workplace's demands encroached too much upon your home-life?
Being a commercial pilot puts a lot of stress on a marriage and your home life.  On average, over the course of my career in both the military and at the airlines, I was gone half of every month.  That meant my wife was a single parent for a good part of our married life.  Fortunately, my wife is a very competent manager of time and our home.  I have, however, known many pilots whose marriages have failed.  It is very important to go into this career with your eyes wide open and to be prepared for the hardships this career brings. 

The flip side, of course, is that during the other half of those many months, I was home, with no duties from my work.  No paperwork to bring home, no computer work to accomplish when I wasn’t in the cockpit.

4. Have you gained a new outlook on life because of your job?
I definitely have benefited from my travels around the world.  I grew up in the inner city in Chicago, and if I had stayed in Chicago in a job without travel, I would not have experienced the many cultures I did with my chosen career.  And I was able to instill in my children a love of travel and diverse cultures that endures to this day.

5. With much more automation being incorporated into aviation, do you feel that the new generation of pilot's may be replaced by computers in the next several decades?
To answer this question, I have to ask, “Would you fly on an airplane without a pilot?”  I don’t know anybody who has not experienced a computer bug, a crash, or a virus.  I don’t think the flying public would accept an airplane without a pilot.  I know I wouldn’t.  It may happen someday, but I don’t think it’ll happen anytime soon. 

6. What was your overall experience working as an airline pilot? Do you look back on it as time well spent? Do you wish some aspects of your job could have been improved upon or done differently?
I loved my career as a pilot.  Are there things I would have changed about it?  Sure, but I think that would be the case in almost any career.  I provided many thousands of people with safe, efficient transportation over great distances for many years.  I always strove to perform to the best of my abilities, to provide the best service possible to my passengers and to my company, and I believe I succeeded more times than not.