The Best Advice

Today's rambling is not explicitly related to life safety, but more of a code to live by which can be applied to a profession.

Many years ago, when I was an apprentice still learning the ropes of my trade, I had the fortune of working the night shift out of town, rolling out a new system for a national grocery chain. My nights were usually uneventful and ended with sitting in a 24/7 diner, nursing a cup of coffee and chatting with the local patrons.

This particular night, or rather morning, I was at a Denny’s in some small town in northern Washington. I remember being particularly tired that morning, and the diner was empty save for the staff and an older gentleman a few seats down the bar. He and I struck up a conversation. He was a carpenter, I an electrician. We talked about our jobs and what life was like working nights.

And then he gave me some of the best advice I have ever heard, though I did not know it at the time. He said, “Listen, you young folk have the world ahead of you. Don’t waste it, learn something new every day, no matter how small.” That has been a driving force in my life since that day. I strive to learn something new, be it about the hazard types outlined in NFPA 13, to the unique crystalline structure created in iron as it cools over the course of a millennium.

And so, dear reader, I implore you to learn something new every day. Read the paper, read a scientific journal, go to your local museum. The quest for knowledge should be unending. Someday you too will reap the rewards of such an endeavor. I know I have.