When I finished high school, I had no idea what to do with my life while everyone rushed off for college elsewhere.
I was not excited about the next chapter of my life and missed my college applications.
My dad suggested I take a gap year while assisting at my uncle’s HVAC business. It sounded like a good plan since I wouldn’t have to struggle with applications, but I was not as invested in HVAC installation and anything related to cooling systems. I had spent most of my teen years avoiding the cooling corporation when all my cousins took cooling equipment sale jobs, but this time, I was open to working alongside their cooling technician team and learning what I could. Hopefully, I will discover my passion and what to study. On my first day, they brought in an electric heat pump that had gone out of stock because it was in high demand. I had never seen one of those and was fascinated by how it works. My uncle, like the cooling specialist he is, hoped that I would be interested enough to join him soon, so I was scheduled to join the cooling technology installation team that would install one of the electric climate control equipment for a client’s home. It was an interesting enough quality AC service assignment, and learning various things while getting a chance to see what the technicians do was enough to keep me interested. My uncle’s business as the oldest and most preferred local service provider meant that we were always busy solving an HVAC issue or another to help with indoor comfort. That gap year experience is why I signed up at the local technical college and began my journey as a qualified HVAC contractor.