Full Circle (Missing a Few Pieces)
It certainly has been a long time since I posted anything!
My life journey took me on an unwelcome detour and brought me full circle, back home to my patient, supportive wife. However, I lost nine years of my life, my career, many friends and family members, my reputation, and my membership in the church I still love and support.
You see, in 2011 I was accused of molesting a nine-year-old girl in a very public place, surrounded by many people, none of whom witnessed or heard anything at all that suggested any attacks were going on within arm's length of them. The circumstances were so improbable, that the prosecutor told me he would drop charges if I passed a polygraph and produced two witnesses who were close enough to observe me and the victim, and who would vouch that no attacks happened.
I passed a polygraph. I produced three, not two, witnesses, some of whom were right next to us when these attacks supposedly occurred. The prosecutor backpedaled on his offer and I had to go to trial.
I fought the charges and lost. I appealed my conviction to all the state courts and lost. I appealed to federal courts and lost. I couldn't afford to appeal to the US Supreme Court, so I ended up serving nine years in prison. I was excommunicated from the church I belonged to my entire life. My professional license was taken away. But -- I am home again, with my dear sweetheart who stood resolutely by my side the entire time, and that means the whole world to me!
I am trying to build a new career at an age when I should be retiring. I am calling my career launch my "Pretirement". I had a background in computer programming and project management that was dormant for several decades. I thought I could resurrect those skills to get a job as a data analyst.
I studied and passed the Microsoft exam to be a certified Excel Expert. I loved all the new bells and whistles that had been added to the trusty old Excel I used to use. Wow! Pivot charts, lookups, graphs, filters, forecasts, power queries, and more. I loved it.
For extra measure, I also studied and passed the Microsoft exam to be a certified PowerBI Associate. So much more capability. What kind of geniuses came up with this wonderful stuff?
I was certain I would find a data analyst job with my new skills. However, most businesses conduct background checks. This hurt my job-finding efforts for ten months.
In desperation, I humbled my expectations and applied for work filling food bins at a grocery store. Background checked again.
I applied for work pushing shopping carts and cleaning up the parking lot at a hardware store. Background checked again.
I applied to be a parcel delivery driver. Background checked again.
At last, I was offered a job for a national food distribution company! I was thrilled to get any job at all. Even better, it was working as a data analyst.
The HR person was eager to hire me. The supervisor who would be over me was not.
I worked there for all of three weeks. From the first day, my supervisor set me up to fail so she could justify dismissing me. The best three-week job of my life!
I am back in the planning and preparation stage of my Pretirement. I have pivoted to expand my writing skills and pursue freelance work as an editor, writer, and proofreader. In this line of work, I figure I should be able to avoid those job-killing background checks.
And the best part of all? I am home with the love of my life every day!
Cheers!
