Introduction

Simple kind of life

Hello there! To add to another new experience in my life recently, this is my first attempt at writing a blog. I suppose I should start with my name and how I got here. My name is Luke and I live in a little-big town in New York State (far from “the city”). Rewind the clock back to September of 2019. I was working a cushy little job as a mailman (Letter Carrier) in a pretty nice side of town for about six years. Great benefits, good pay, a nice retirement. Easy. Then, my life got super exciting when my wife and I had our first baby. A little bundle of trouble named, Nash. I was able to take six weeks off for bonding and had the best (and most tiring) time. When I returned to work, things seemed a little different from when I left. A few people had retired since I left, however, the Postmaster didn’t hire anyone new. With Christmas coming up, this was very confusing…

Enter covid

Within a few weeks after Christmas, Covid-19 became a thing. This is when life got really strange. The Postmaster still had not hired and new employees and it was getting obvious that we wouldn’t be getting help any time soon. With everyone staying home, the number of packages (Amazon mostly) rose greatly. I went from about 50 packages a day, to over 200 on my own route. My nice little eight-hour day turned to 10. On top of that, to cover the empty routes, we were mandated to work overtime. We were to work at least 12 hours a day by delivering on other routes. On Sundays, we were mandated to come in and deliver our excess of Amazon packages and any mail left over from the vacant routes. After hearing that it would get better by management and only seeing my son while he was asleep for over a year, I started looking for a way out.

Change is scary…

One day out of the blue, my wife told me she did a search for online classes. She told me about the Oregon State University Post Bacc program. I already had a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Utica College so I would be able to apply. It was a big decision for me to make. On one hand, I had a career that I have already invested six years of my life to which had benefits and a nice retirement which is hard to find nowadays, but on the other hand, I wasn’t happy with what I was doing.

…but not changing can be scarier

I think what finally made me choose to go back to school was when I started delivering toilet paper from Amazon to houses. I remember thinking, “What am I doing with my life?” In July 2021, my wife had our second child. A sweet little baby named, Cici. I was again able to take time off for bonding. I used all of my vacation and sick time I had. Two weeks before I ran out of time, I sent in my two-week notice. After a year of not knowing where I would end up or if it was a good decision or not, I received my first job offer. Actually two! I had to turn one down which felt so crazy. Both were offering way more than what the Post Office had with better hours. I’ll save my applying process for another blog because it took a few interviews to finally get those offers.

In closing

The past two years contained so many new experiences in my life. From work to my home life. Before I started this program, I thought my life was pretty much set. Work 24 more years and retire. Plans change, however. I couldn’t imagine delivering mail for another 24 years. I can’t imagine what will be up ahead instead but, I am excited for it and couldn’t be happier.