One of the realities of living in Smalltown, Alberta, is the need for meaningful employment for the young men in the family. There are only so many jobs to go around in a village, and if there aren't quite the right connections and the right skills, well, Bigcity, Alberta, there they go.
If they are not gifted at farming, for example, it may be difficult to find work close to home. On that note: Anyone gifted in farming will never be unemployed in the near future, if I am assessing the vocational landscape correctly. There always seems to be the need for dependable, qualified workers on area farms—or at least that's what I hear.
I speak as a father of six sons who need to become contributing members to the society, through responsible character, family leadership, and meaningful employment. Slowly but surely, these sons of mine are gravitating towards all three components...more or less
It's the one who has a bee in his bonnet for Starbucks that I am thinking about at present (or would that be a “bean” in his bonnet?). Either way, by the time you read this, he will have bolted from the frozen tundra of southern Alberta for the warm climes of BC's Okanagan Valley, to become a coffee connoisseur at Starbucks. His ultimate goal is to run a speciality coffee shop, so I suppose Starbucks is as good as any place to start.
The cynical side of me says, Really? How clever does one have to be to pour coffee? When you
strip away the aura of the Starbucks logo, when you take a hard, reasoned look at what is involved in running a Starbucks counter, well, I wonder what the real attraction is.
On a side note, it can't be the coffee. Far too strong for me. Also, I'm over 30, so it doesn't have the peer pressure component to it. McCafe, here I come.
The reasonable side of me answers the idiotic comment in the paragraph twice-removed with the following response: You've got to start somewhere, and Starbucks is as good as any other place. There are hundreds and hundreds of Starbucks scattered across North America and Europe, so advancement is clearly possible—to say nothing of travelling and seeing the world while working.
Pouring coffee isn't a really high-end skill, though someone has to make it just right. The people skills, not the pouring skills, is one thing that makes Starbucks such a great place to work—and to hang out. Additionally, the management side of Starbucks has a real appeal for any young buck, my son included.
A shift to Starbucks is a shift out of the home, out of the family unit. It marks another change for us and we will need to adjust. Some of ours have left for marriage, others for school, and now this one for work. If we had a normal-size family, we would be empty nesters by now. However, with four gone or going, others itching to move on, we still have a lot of bodies kicking around the Back Thirty. We simply can't relate to the notion of having just two kids.
The loss (or would that just be a departure?) of another body also means a shift in duties and chores. One must not think of kids at home only as extra workers—dishwashers, moppers, dusters, and such. That would be selfish control. Over the years, with varying degrees of success, they have learned to pitch in, help out, and do their part. This training, then, has helped gain them experience for jobs outside the home—including working at Starbucks.
Perspective plays a big part in how we view a family member leaving. Thus, it could be considered a loss, or in fact it could be considered an expansion--a stepping out into the real world, if you will. I see it as the latter. There is no greater way for anyone, writer included, to appreciate how good, how cheap, and how easy, things are at home—than by leaving it.
Even if it's for a cup of coffee.
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