Autobiography?

MU requires me to have an autobiography as part of the PLA process. After a few hours of work, here it is. Kind of sanitized, IMO. Maybe a bit amusing too. Have fun with it, for what it's worth.

===
In some ways, I began my search for a career before I was in grade school. My parents were -- and continue to be -- self employed, having taken over the reigns of an outdoors store that had been founded by my grandfather. By the time I was born, this business was in the daylight basement level of our home, and I was just as much a part of it as I was a part of the family.

By the time I was a high school student, contemplating the future, the retail side of the business was less than 20% of the business' gross income, and an even smaller amount of our profits. I saw this not as a problem, but as an opportunity; here was a segment of the business that I could grow and make into my own.

At 17, I became the manager of the "retail services" department, I had control of purchasing for the shop floor, and had a strong hand in making advertising and marketing decisions for the company as a whole. The retail segment of the business grew from 20% to about 35% of the business during the next five years, despite setbacks brought on by an economic downturn and a drop in money spent on travel and leisure immediately following the attacks of September 11th, 2001.



A start in civics

Our home -- and business -- was located on the edge of downtown Tigard, where the City had long been trying to establish an urban renewal district. When the city announced yet another meeting about downtown, my father sent me to attend and represent the family and business. I was just 17.

At that meeting, people who had been instrumental in revitalizing other retail cores made presentations to a committee about what they had done in their respective areas. I was fascinated, and at the end, the city staff person who worked with the committee read out the time and location of the next meeting. I resolved to go to that as well.

The purpose of the committee, it turned out, was to chart a 20 year vision for the city. At first I hesitated to put my voice in, feeling myself a guest, but as time passed, the subjects of discussion became too fascinating not to participate.

When the group's final report was submitted to the City, our city staff liaison read off the members of the committee who had made it possible, and to my surprise, she read off my name. Through the strength of my participation alone, I had become part of their committee. It was the beginning of an involvement in civics that was to continue over a decade. Most recently, I was appointed Commissioner of the City Center Advisory Commission, a body responsible for the planning of a 200 plus acre, $22 million urban renewal district.


Other pursuits

In 2002, I began to volunteer at the Willamette Shore Trolley, a heritage trolley line in Lake Oswego, Oregon. My primary activities there were assisting in maintenance operations. In 2003, I put in over 200 hours of volunteer labor at WST, double the required amount to receive their service award.

During this time, I also met an employee of the Chehalis Centralia Railroad, a tourist railroad and museum in SW Washington state. Through that contact, I was soon training to be a conductor in Chehalis, working on weekends throughout the summer. By early 2004, I was a regular member of their operating crew. In April, 2005, I received my General Code of Operating Rules conductor's certification, as well as certification in Roadway Worker Protection rules.

Although I have had to cut back on my participation at the WST, I continue to be both an employee of the Chehalis-Centralia Railroad, putting in hundreds of hours each year there.


Search for a new career path

Although I had made significant headway in bringing new life to the retail side of the family business, I felt that my progress had run into a brick wall. The main dilemma; to increase the output of profits, the investment would have to grow equally. This was perfectly fine, but the bulk of the retail department rested on snowsports equipment. Sales of skis and snowshoes are highly sensitive to economic downturns. They're also seasonal -- you don't sell many skis in July. Lastly, they're weather sensitive; one bad snow year and your sales hurt.

Making matters more difficult, the rise of large retail outlets and online retailers were providing stiff competition and thinning profit margins. Further, the consolidation of manufacturers and distributors was reducing the availability and access for a products.

After some soul searching, I stepped away from the retail department in 2003, and began to look for a career path outside of the family business.


The freelance experience, 1999-2004

Literature and the arts have always had strong pulls on me. My parents were always well-read individuals, and I grew up in a house of books. Being an author always had a strong appeal for me.

Visual arts also were strong in my family. My mother and brother both painted, and I began to paint as a child. Unlike most children, I kept at it, developing my abilities. As a teenager, I began to regularly use a camera as a "mechanical sketchbook" to assist my painting, and soon enough, that became an artistic outlet in it's own right.

A chance encounter with the publisher of a new outdoors magazine lead to a series of articles on wintersports, ski resorts, and travel. Other freelance pursuits during this time frame included web development and illustration work, as well as a couple of watercolor commissions.

Finally, after a number of e-mail exchanges with a member of the editorial staff at TRAINS Magazine, a nationally distributed news magazine on rail transportation, I was soon shooting the opening of the latest MAX light rail line on assignment.


The life and death of a business, and freelancing pays off

My search for a job path in Portland was a glum thing. Most of the jobs I wanted to hold down -- jobs in graphic design or media -- required education which I didn't posses. In the midst of this, I decided to take a plunge into self-employment, pursuing my photography and design skills as a career path.

It was a quick and costly ride. The increasing availability of digital photo technology was making "photographers" commonplace. Additionally, I had taken on a friend as a business partner, perceiving that this gave me more security and strength than going it alone. In the end, it did neither. Schedule conflicts and the side effects of complications in our separate personal lives conspired to make the business more complex to manage, not less. Inside of a year, despite many sales calls, we had not one client. Further developments in my partner's personal life led to the dissolution of the business attempt shortly after.

Meanwhile, the relationship I had built with my first assignment at TRAINS resulted in further assignments. When shuffling on the editorial staff resulted in a promotion for my main contact there, I was asked to fill in for her, ghost-editing a column on rail transit. After three months, I was hired as her permanent replacement, becoming a Special Correspondent with a regular column space in the magazine.

With no formal training, I was now a journalist for a respected part of the transportation media. In the next two years, I managed to write dozens of columns, and make hundreds of contacts in the railroad and transit industries as well as the government.


Clarity and the path to school

Although working for the magazine was rewarding both experientially and financially, it was not enough to make a career out of. I began to investigate returning to school and seeking a degree. My desire to transition away from media began to grow during this time as well. While I was always writing about exciting things in the field of transportation, I wasn't participating in them; i began to feel I was on the sidelines of life. School would offer me a route to became part of the process, instead of being an observer. After two interesting years, I stepped back from my columnist duties at TRAINS in August 2006 to concentrate on school.