About Me
Born and raised in southeast Minnesota, I graduated from Hayfield High School, in 2007. I began taking college courses at Riverland Community College, that fall, but dropped out for some years. While enjoying an illustrious career in retail and service, I returned to Riverland in 2013, and graduated three years later, with several Associate's degrees and several certificates of completion.
Soon after graduating, I began trying to build a business. It helped that I had good relationships with the people I worked with. A lot of my customers came by word of mouth. I did have a website at the time, but my inexperience led it to be of poor design.
Growing bored with the SE MN atomosphere, I moved to the Wisconsin Dells area. There, I began gaining professional experience as a lubrication technician, in another retail environment. I also gained experience selling firearms, as a sporting goods sales clerk, before moving on to a do-it-yourself retailer.
I had a lot of fun in this environment. I was able to use my mechanical, problem-solving, and sales skills, on a daily basis. Through excellent customer service and a dedicated attitude, I was offered a management position, and began gaining experience in that role. I did not stay in this role long, however, before deciding it was time to move again.
I was able to transfer to another location within the same company, in the Mt. Vernon, IL area. I did not transfer in to another mangement position, but was soon offered one, after setting the same example that I set in the Wisconsin store. Though I refused the position, having not felt comfortable with the new environment, the team and I were able to demonstrate a 10% sales increase in our department. I was missed, when I decided it was time to leave.
At the tail end of 2022, my parents, in Minnesota, communicated to me that there were some mobile homes for sale, in my home town of Hayfield. Since things weren't working out well in my then-current living situation, I applied for a mortgage and bought my first home in the spring of 2023.
I am currently living in my home town of Hayfield, in my own home, with my four cats. I hold a full-time job in logistics, as a shipping clerk, and manage a portion of warehouse inventory. I enjoy the position. It works well with my meticulous nature. After work, I do nightly chores and take my cats out for a walk. As a homeowner, my spare time is usually taken up with home maintenance. I own two vintage Chevrolet trucks, which I enjoy working on also.
My ultimate goal at this point, is to obtain an in-house Information Technology position. Doing that at my currrent company, would be ideal because, it is not a large corporate nightmare. However, I feel as though I face the same obstacle that I have at larger companies: location. Even though I work close to Hayfield, my current company is based in St. Paul. I was unable to obtain an IT position at my previous employer because, I would have to live in Eau Claire, WI. Unlike my previous employer, a lot of the IT work at this company, is remote. The director of the IT department, lives out of state. There is hope.
I am not opposed to doing what I was doing when, I graduated from Riverland Community College. That is, being a self-employed IT technician. However, I feel as though there are better things that I could be doing. A larger company, provides better pay and better benefits that a man alone, can not provide for himself. I'll never make a livable wage, helping the local elderly population, hook up a printer, though it is gratifying on a spiritual level. Besides, it seems that technology has become so user-friendly, that sort of aid is a thing of the past.