Hello and welcome back to CapOhTV!
Today I'm going to share with you what I've been up to since I quit substitute teaching.
For those of you that follow me on Instagram, @CapOhTV, you may have already figured out
what it is I'm doing now instead of substitute teaching.
I've decided to work full-time as a mover and I'm working on getting my Class B Commercial
Driver's License.
But the more important thing that I've done is joined Toastmasters!
Toastmasters is an international communication and leadership development club.
Think public speaking in high school or college... only it doesn't cost you $3,000 per class!
My goal right now is to not be a truck driver or mover for the rest of my life.
I think I want to be a professional speaker and Toastmasters is going to help me figure
that out.
And now, for your viewing pleasure, here's the first speech that I did at Toastmasters
last week.
It's the icebreaker speech.
This speech is supposed to introduce a new member to the group and I chose to focus on
my job history and how I got to today.
Roll the video!
This was my destiny.
What you're looking at is a moving strap.
It's usually used to secure furniture in the back of a moving truck or trailer, but this
strap has been on my shoulders for almost my entire life.
They would say: “Moving's in your blood!
You're a Cap, you were born to move!
You've got to continue the family legacy!”
See, my dad has been a mover for over 45 years and he's done every job there is to do in
the business, including driving.
And at this point, he'll never not be a mover.
My uncle's a driver and he's been a mover just as long as my dad.
My brother got his start as a truck driver by spending almost a decade as a mover.
Even my dad's dad long ago, though I never met him, was a mover.
And I got my first taste of humping furniture during the summer of my junior year in high
school.
I was determined though to not become a lifer, so I've had my fair share of jobs over the
years.
That's why I've only spent 8 of the last 14 summers working as a mover.
My first attempt to escape my moving destiny was my early years in college when I was a
Walmart Photo Lab Technician.
That was a pretty good job but eventually the corporate retail environment and the crappy
management team drove me away.
I went back to the moving company with my dad, uncle, and brother for the rest of my
summers during college.
After college, I spent almost two years working as a debt collector.
That was an interesting job and I learned a lot about sales, communication, finance,
and economics.
But that was part of the problem: the more I learned about economics and finance, the
more I hated debt and the more I resented the banks that we were supposed to be working
for.
So eventually I stopped collecting enough money in the eyes of the company, I was fired
solely for that reason, and I was fine with that.
I didn't go right back to moving this time, though.
Instead, I went into a related field: truck brokering and dispatching.
The first time I walked across the lot at Lucca Freezer in Vineland I said to myself,
“This is where I'm supposed to be.”
The sights, sounds, and smells of the 18-wheelers brought back all the good memories of the
moving company.
Only this time, I would be behind a desk organizing transportation for over 400 pallets of fruit
and vegetables every single day.
I was hoping someone would bring a piece of fruit today, because that piece of fruit is
a logistical miracle.
There was a saying that people used to espouse in the office is that there are a lot of hands
in the cookie jar and—oh, there's a banana!
This banana came from a very long distance, with the number of hands that went into getting
this banana here tonight, it's astonishing that anything gets to where it's supposed
to be in the first place!
But, after two solid years of working 60 to 70 hours a week, sometimes until 1 o'clock
in the morning, coming in at 8:00am the day before, I had had enough.
So I hatched a new scheme to avoid my moving destiny: I was going to become a high school
social studies teacher.
So I renewed my sub certificate, I quit my job as broker/dispatcher, and I went back
to Rowan to take two extra history classes in order to qualify for my K-12 teaching certificate.
So I spent the next three years working as a substitute teacher, hoping one day I would
get a full-time position.
There was one small problem, though.
School is only in session 180 days a year.
So what do you think I did during the summers?
Now that school has started again, I don't wear a shirt and tie to work anymore.
I realized a long time ago that I didn't want to be a public school teacher and I didn't
want to be a part of that school system.
It's been 14 years since I first felt the weight of this strap and at this point in
my life, it's not as heavy as I thought it would be.
That's why I finally decided to try on my destiny and become another driver in the family
legacy, even if it turns out just to be temporary.
Thank you.
Overall, for my first speech in front of a live audience, I think that went pretty good.
What did you think?
Did you love it?
Did you hate it?
Let me know in the comments down below!
And if this was your first time here to CapOhTV and you think school is a joke and you want
to explore topics related to that idea, hit that subscribe button now so you don't miss
anything in the future!
Thanks for watching, see you later, bye!