Have you caught yourself looking back, not over your shoulder but your past? Do you find that you can be mindfully walking or driving and be lost in your thought process? Something often sets this emotion off, it could be a song, a familiar scent, seeing a child play or looking at an old photo. It can be like a library of images, that have been filed over many years that rush back into your mind, vividly reminding you of what was and what could have been. Nostalgia allows us to recapture those moments when we were a child playing fondly with Lego, imagining being a builder, an architect or even a designer. That bittersweet feeling can course through our blood, remembering what we lost or evoking change to re-map our future.
Many of us spend our lives doing something we really don’t want to do, but we stick at it for fear of change, loss of income, uncertainty or not having a clear vision of what to do. Our families can be a driver to our success, wanting those we love around us to be proud of our achievements. We cannot rewrite our past, it simply shapes our future and part of who we have become as an individual today. In today’s working environment it has become more socially acceptable to have dual trades, multiple academic qualifications that are not aligned and having varying careers. Growing up decades ago, it was expected that you chose a field of expertise or interest and pursued it. If you became a bus driver, bookkeeper or even a teacher that was what you were known for, it became your identity and it was almost frowned up to change course.
Toby joined our company in a full-time capacity as an Electrical Apprentice on the 7th of February 2019 and could be described as a late bloomer. Growing up Toby showed a great interest in computer programming and at the tender age of 14, he was talked out of it and discouraged to follow this as a career path. Was this because there was still so much to be understood about programming. Was it a job that held little status or was it feared that it would not provide stability and be a future proof job? With programming off the table, Toby’s dad was passionate about fixing things, and started to teach him how to repair pin ball machines. At 15 Toby, started to buy and repair pin ball machines and continued to do this over a three-year period, where he then sold them for a profit.
When Toby completed school and, in the years to follow, he studied multiple disciplines including medicine for a period of time and a teaching course. He felt that medicine was a paradigm of a time he grew up in, but it was just not ticking his boxes. Toby decided after his first year, it was not something he wanted to pursue. He travelled to Europe for a year and gained worldly experience, before returning home to Australia to complete a Bachelor Degree in Commerce. This was driven, by the need to look at doing things differently and better within the workplace. Toby immersed himself in to administration and supervisory roles within the retail and healthcare sector but could still not settle. It was while working in the health care sector that he met a woman that would become his wife.
Toby got married and created a home, where he soon became a proud stay at home dad to his beautiful daughter. He was able to be part of enriching his daughters most important years of development. Toby packed the lunches, cleaned the house and spent many hours doing homework and projects with his daughter. This complemented his wife’s busy career within healthcare, providing them an ideal balance. As time passed and his daughter grew up, it allowed Toby to look at where he is going. Toby went back to University in 2017 to do Podiatry and not long into the course, his past experience of studying medical material hit him like a whirl wind. This really was confirmation that the door on anything medical needed to be closed. Toby knew it was time to go back to his origins and draw back on his love of tinkering with wires and fixing things.
Toby was able to identify that he loves short term outcomes, electrical work provides spontaneity and has a starting point and works to a completion having a tangible result. The irony was that he remembers looking back and having made the statement when he was 17, “I want to marry a doctor and look after the kids”. Sometimes, life just has a way of working itself out and what we put out into the universe we get back. When we feel that a chapter in our life is complete it enables us to re-focus our energies on something new. Toby’s first love will always be his wife and daughter, but he recognises it is the ideal time to focus on his career. Toby has been given an opportunity to choose a career he wants to do, and write the next story of his book of life. He stands tall with his recent title of Electrical Apprentice with Universal Electro Tech and Universal Switchboards. Everything else seems but a distant memory.
Have the courage to be true to yourself and pursue your thoughts, wants and desires, not everyone has it perfectly mapped out when they finish school, college or university. The past will only be a shadow if you allow it, your thoughts will either be your greatest obstacle or your reason for change. F Scott Fitzgerald said “for what it’s worth: It’s never too late to be whatever you want to be. I hope you live a life you are proud of, and if you find that you are not, I hope you have the strength to start over”. When you contact our team and choose to work with our company, you are contributing to us supporting up and coming electrical apprenticeships like Toby, fulfill their dreams.
Electrical Solutions Designed and Delivered by Universal Electro Tech and Universal Switchboards. Contact our team on (08) 9328 9491 | admin@universalelectrotech.com | www.universalelectrotech.com.au/ or visit our premises at 105 Robinson Avenue, Belmont, WA 6104.