All my life, I had to do what my father said.
Our culture teaches us that the father is to be obeyed no matter how old you are.
We respect our mothers and obey our fathers. My father and his brother thought I should be an HVAC technician. They had this dream for me from the time I was six-year-old. They knew the importance of heating and air conditioning, and he wanted an HVAC technician in his household. I grew up knowing I was going to be an HVAC technician when I got old enough. When I turned fifteen, I was beginning to think about other things I wanted to be. My oldest brother was a doctor, and I thought about medicine for a career. I thought about going to college and being a teacher. There was nothing inside me that said I wanted to be an HVAC technician, except my father’s voice constantly nagging at me to be an HVAC technician. I talked to my high school guidance counselor. I told him about the situation with my dad, but I didn’t want to be an HVAC technician. I was still mulling over other options for after I graduated. He told me that not being an HVAC technician may not be the answer. He suggested I consider going into the military. He thought I could get an education in HVAC while in the Navy or any Armed Forces branch. If I liked it while in the service, I could take my training anywhere. I would also get free HVAC training, and get paid while doing it. This was something I wanted to consider.