Beer

Armed with an education, I started thinking about my career.  It is easy to get influenced by the norm.  Hamilton grads were compelled to seek their fortune in professions like finance, to go on to school to become a doctor or a lawyer, to find a place to begin “changing the world” for the better.  I picked a line and got into it.  My first interview was with Proctor & Gamble on campus.  It went pretty well, but I didn’t make the cut.  My next thought was to query a mentor of mine from Hamilton who had graduated two years earlier.  He was making his way on Wall Street.  He got me an interview with MONY so I went to New York City to give it my best shot.  Never was there a fish further from water than me.  The interview was short, and not-so-sweet.  I was 0 for 2 and not at all sure what to do.  It was then that I learned the value of analytical and independent thinking.  To decide what to do next I had to break the objective down to it’s simplest denominator.  I needed a job.  So, what could I do that someone might pay me to do?  Well, I knew the beer business.  And, I knew the name of the family that purchased my grandfather’s beer business.  The rest just kind of fell into place.  A job as a ‘management trainee” at the Syracuse (a place that will be central to my life a lot it turns out) Anheuser-Busch distributorship.  A quick stint on the trucks to show I knew the game, a seized opportunity to be the first computer operations manager, then to add to this the night warehouse manager role for more money.  Working a lot, learning the business, making an impression, tackling the big problems head-on, networking, eyes wide open.  These things seemed to come natural and seemed to guide me quickly to a career path I could’ve never dreamed up.  

Along the way, I married my high school sweetheart and we began to build the foundation of our family.  An apartment, then our first child, then a home, then our second child.  Life picked up speed, fast.  At 24, barely two years out of school, things had changed so much for a kid like me.   The blistering pace of life I was on had hidden my feelings that something was missing.  There was an emptiness, subtle, but present.  Why?  Two beautiful children, a wonderful wife, a nice house, a good job and an emptiness.   Analytical and independent thought was my fallback option again.  What was causing the feeling?  What was missing? 

Upon reflection, I began to focus on family and Little Falls.  The more I reflected the more I realized that the distance, though quite small, was the source of the emptiness.  Lori, my wife, felt it too.