Before I get too into today’s piece I would love for someone or anyone to read My Father’s Scrapbooks and let me know what they think via email or comments below! Now for today’s article, Part Three of Into The Looking Glass… (Click here for Part One), which is a look back at where I’ve come from as both a person and a writer. I’ve been through many trials in my day, however I will leave full disclosure for perhaps a professional autobiography if I manage to make it as a writer and worm my way into media somehow. For now, enjoy my path, picking up where I left off after Junior High.

As Junior High came to a close I found myself among a very tightly knit group of friends. We all got along and there was next to no conflict. I helped one of them bury a goldfish, helped another weed his mom’s garden and had my best friend wake up to me eating breakfast at his computer because I rushed to school way too early. Sometimes a six looks like an eight, especially when you’re extremely tired. But as times went on one friend moved away and we all began thinking about high school. What classes would we take, what would we end up in together, etc…  We eventually coordinated and kept on with french immersion. It kept the majority of the morons in our school away from our classes and allowed us to learn unhindered.

However grade ten was relatively easy, I found myself struggling with math. Suddenly it was a challenge? I thought back to all my learning from elementary school and realized, I coasted through until grade nine, grade ten was new. Math beat me down and despite my passion for it I barely made a mark of seventy percent. As I looked ahead to grade eleven I realized french immersion was no longer an option. It had none of the classes I was interested in taking so I decided that despite coming this far I would drop it. I didn’t want to ruin my chances for university just because I needed to take Astronomie. I also decided since I wouldn’t be taking classes in french, I could focus on my math and asked to enter the Advanced Math classes. My teacher from grade ten fought valiantly to get me banned from the class, but the teacher for my next class let me in. She warned me though, if I wasn’t trying my best she would not allow me into the next class. That seemed rather fair.

The year went on and my friends began getting jobs. I searched and applied everywhere but to no avail… eventually taking up a job as the Easter Bunny. Free chocolate and ten dollars an hour for a sixteen year old was the greatest job ever. Sadly, it was only for a few days. As that job ended I got a call back from Burger King and took the job for a lack of options. Lucky for me, my trainer was the High School President for the graduating year. Him being an awesome guy, he taught me quickly and we had some hilarious times. No one else really took a shine to me but he really made it bearable. As summer came, he informed me that he would be heading off to volunteer at a youth camp for the summer, but he’d be back. Needless to say, I didn’t last the summer as I found the rest of that group hated me because he liked me immediately. Jealousy in the workplace was extremely annoying, and eventually they forced me out.

Finally my best friend had managed to secure himself a promotion at the theatre he was working at and asked me to come work with him. Of course free movies and working with my best friend sounded awesome, so I applied and got the job easily. On my name tag, they wrote my name as TIM E but the space was almost non existent. Logically, the first customer I had on my first shift had to ask: “Is your name Time?” I didn’t want the lady to feel embarrassed for asking the question, so I rolled with it. I told her my parents had their hippy phase a bit late, and had named me Time. Of course my trainer was already in the back room spreading laughter about that whole situation and the nickname stuck. Even the owner of the theatre only knew me as Time, so when I was eventually promoted to Supervisor he received a new name tag for me to which he asked, “Who’s Tim Edwards?” Before I got promoted however, I was working quite a lot and I had worked really late one night and got to work for about six in the morning the next day. I got to work, groggily made my way upstairs to the change rooms and got changed. I felt really cold, but who doesn’t when they wake up in the morning. As I made my way downstairs into the lobby I made eye contact with the supervisor and cash office manager across the lobby. As we met eyes, I watched as both of them burst into a ridiculous fit of laughter. I stopped a moment and looked down. Sure enough, I was pants-less, however my socks were hiked up to my knees and I still managed to put my belt on and tuck my shirt into it. My Darth Vader boxers made quite the impression, I simply looked back up at the two laughing hysterically and nodded as I turned to go and retrieve my pants. That might be a sign you work too much.

The theatre years would prove some of the most hilarious times of my many jobs as I shared many moments in a team atmosphere. From Coke Bag-In-Box Boxing to getting stuck up to the waist in popcorn, laughs were easily daily and the job was super easy. As I graduated high school I made the tough choice not to follow my best friend to University in Alberta. Instead, I chose to stay back in Nova Scotia and take advantage of my Dad’s half off at Dalhousie University because he worked there.

Even still, half off for university was still expensive as I didn’t really plan for university. I had a pay-as-I-go method that would cause me to apply at EB Games and hope for the best. I managed to graduate high school with not as good a mark as I had hoped, (Switching from french science to english science was not easy in the slightest) however that mark was the one that kept me from making honours. Despite that I got into Dalhousie and applied for student loans. I was shocked to learn that I was ineligible for government loans. After they denied me, I looked to my bank for anything and they granted me a line of credit. To anyone reading this, just don’t. I worked two jobs and tried to start university.

As a young guy I really came into who I wanted to be in high school. I learned where I needed to go and stopped worrying about getting a girlfriend. I figured it would just happen when it happened. So I managed to get a keyholder position at EB Games, held down my Supervisor position at the Theatre and started school. It was going to be hard, but I was determined to be the first in my immediate family who would graduate from university. However… fate as it seems had other plans for me. But I’ll get to that in Part Four. For now, thanks for reading!