Big happenings!

Big "doins" happening in the our household!  This is a classic story of taking lemons and making lemonade. 
The lemon our family was handed was Dave getting fired from a job he's had for 12 years.  He never liked it, mind you, but it paid the bills and he became good at it.  He was never uncomfortable enough to do anything about it, so he was stuck in a job that he was very unhappy in and it was just the way it was.  When he got fired, it was such a dark time for us.  He was embarrassed to be working at a company that is the butt of many jokes - but he was more embarrassed to be fired from such a company. 
The other night, we were watching Gordon Ramsay Kitchen Nightmares, and he kept stopping the show to tell me about when he worked in the kitchen, this happened and that happened.  This is very common when we are watching any type of cooking show.  I finally said to him "Why don't you go back to school to be a chef?"  He did it in VoTech in high school, and was in the kitchen for 4 years in the Navy.  Life happened after the Navy, and he ended up getting a bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice.  After trying for over a year to get a job in the legal system, he was so discouraged he got a job in retail.  Retail was supposed to be a bridge until he got a "real job", but once again, life happened and he stayed.  In the blink of an eye, 10 years passed and now he's 40.  Another blink, and 2 more years passed and now he's almost 42 and unemployed in a state with an over 13% unemployment rate. 
We went on a tour of Johnson & Wales University today.  It's one of the top 2 cooking schools in the country.  He was motivated enough to look at the website, sign up for an orientation, and look at the classes.  This may not sound like much, but this is H.U.G.E. for him.  He has an appointment with admissions on Wednesday.  Because he has his bachelors already, he can get an associates in 1 year. The tour was great and we got to taste some of the student's creations.  It was amazing!  The real amazing part of this whole story is that Dave is taking steps to better his life.  That right there is the lemonade part of this whole story.  He's not just letting life happen to him - he's choosing the path.