A Jackhammer, and self improvement

Read time: 3 minutes.

*POP*

I felt a sharp pain shoot up my arm then dull throbbing heat.

A 1 lb piston shot out of a high-pressure air-powered Jack Hammer affectionally named the “hell dog” into the inside of my upper arm.

It was a complete accident caused by miscommunication, exhaustion, and the eagerness of a young foreman.

I don't blame him. He was working hard to prove himself. None of us could hear, and we hardly knew what was happening at any given time.

It was the last day of a contractor job that we were told would last 3+ months. The job consisted of:

• climbing into a semi-live furnace through a tiny man-sized hole

• chipping away all the built-up slag debris on the sides of the furnace with air guns, and jackhammers.

• to remove slag that would fall to the bottom by shoveling it through more small man-sized holes.

To make it even more fun: it was 120 degrees, we did 12-hour shifts, and we were on a swinging wooden platform 80 feet in the air for the first week.

Anyway back to the story - The shot to the arm caused some serious damage. It tore my tricep and bicep muscles, and some possible ligament damage as well.

I'll never know the extent of the injury, I couldn’t afford to go to the hospital and didn't have health insurance. My entire arm was bruised, with beautiful shades of black, purple, and green. I couldn’t move it for weeks. When I would bend it neither muscle would contract and I had the grip strength of a newborn.

I'm still dealing with this injury today and will likely need surgery at some point soon.

My arm clicks with every bend, it's underdeveloped, my bicep is misshapen, and it's painful some days for no reason.

Being in an industry where your only commodity is your body, not being able to move is a death sentence. I had bills to pay, and now I couldn’t work, didn’t know the extent of my injuries, and had no game plan for my future.

Why am I telling you this?

Because this was a major turning point in my life.

My body was beginning to break down, from years of hard manual labor, construction, and roofing.

I needed to figure out a way to escape this life. One problem, I had nothing to attach my name to, no degree, no skills, no connections.

I couldn’t afford school anymore, dropped out of college(CS major), and barely scraped by.

After a few weeks of sulking and searching, I heard of a free tech boot camp through a friend named LaunchCode. With my college experience in computer science and the goal of becoming a software developer, I jumped on this opportunity.

Applying and attending LaunchCode was one of the best decisions I've made to date.

You learn front and back-end web development, and how to be a professional, and helps you land a job after you complete the course. The best part - it is (was?) completely free.

Through this opportunity I received my current position as a Research Tech II at a reputable cancer center, in the best hospital in the state. I do flow cytometry now, learned it completely from scratch on the job in a little over a month, and now have an irreplaceable skill.

It wasn't easy, it took over a year, almost 2, but now I have a set of skills. Skills that will ensure I never return to the manual labor workforce.

I sell my brain instead of my body now, and that's a shift you're going to have to make if you want to be successful.

I want to inspire you with this short story.

You can break the cycle of poor habits, shit job positions, classism, and any situation in life.

We live in an age where you can learn anything you want in a couple of taps of a button.

There hasn't been this level of opportunity ever in all human history.

Are you going to keep settling for scraps or start pursuing a better life?