the consequence of your ignorance is the reality I now see before me

"the message will now be profoundly spoken
rules are meant to be broken
therefore it's my pleasure to mentor
but once learned you must yearn to discern
the mechanical glitch of artificial intelligence"
-Cee-Lo, "Microhard"

Once upon a time, I was in the 8th grade. My school, Buist Academy, had a mentoring program for 8th-graders that consisted of a day-long apprenticeship or job shadow component that occurred monthly. I remember getting dropped off in the white hoopty to the shopping plaza near the intersection of Rivers Ave & Aviation Ave (where Old Country Buffet used to be).

You see, a year or two earlier I had gotten the novel idea in my mind that I wanted to become an engine er when I grew up. So all the math and science that was whatever to me now mattered a lot more. I recall learning my social security number for the first time and hearing that I'd have to start memorizing it because I'd need it more often as I got older. But of course, nobody was talking about identity theft just yet. Go figure.

Anyways, I think it may have been the phone company or something like that. But I think there were three of us who all got assigned the same crew of adults. Whether they were engineers or technicians escapes me. I do remember one of them was white and one of them was black. And they had a good working relationship. Furthermore, all three of us were barely-teen black males who wanted to be engineers who lived in the city where the Civil War started and in a state notorious for being at the bottom of everyone's educational rankings.

We didn't give a damn. Set your mind to it and bang it out. Dream big and push yourself to achieve regardless of circumstance. And be ready and willing to sit up straight and listen to words of wisdom.

So....my peoples at the Boston Private Industry Council are coordinating their annual Job Shadow Day. It is scheduled for Friday, January 30, 2009. Professionals do not have to pay anything to participate. They just have to be willing to host a student for a half-day and allow them to "shadow" you at the workplace. It is a great opportunity to support the career aspirations of the youth of this city. Plus, some of the conversation you'll have with these youth will truly stimulate your brain cells. Even though I am not from Boston, I can attest wholeheartedly that a job shadow experience is very rewarding and worth every second. Hell, I first learned how to use Microsoft Windows and was playing MineSweeper back in the fall of 1993 thanks to those 2 dudes. You down?