This past week was almost like being in college again, only more cramming. As any of you didn’t know, I was hand picked to go up to Glenview, IL to get trained to become a licensed Insurance Agent, or they would like to call them “Producers.” Let me tell you, this past week was nuts. First off, the Sunday I was coming up to Glenview from Kankakee was not too bad, until reaching around 65th St. on the Dan Ryan and it was a complete standstill on the road. I mean, seriously, it looked like rush hour, at it was Sunday! Then, after getting off the expressway, I used some bogus directions I got from Goggle maps and got for an hour! Word of advice, do not ever use Goggle maps. I was suppose to be there between the times of 5:00 to 7:00, and I didn’t show up until about ten minutes before nine at night. I thought I wasn’t going to be able to check in, but in good faith, the times didn’t matter and I got to go into my hotel room. Also, I had a roommate, he was pretty cool, an older guy from Michigan. Anyways, I couldn’t sleep good that night due to my nerves being all shot up, so it made the next day fun. Then, around five in the morning, I started getting ready, and that was when I found out about George Carlin passing away, which I was crushed. But either way, I got ready, took the bus to the school, and went to class. There were five people in my class, and I was youngest one! I had to give the teacher some packets I obtained from my interviewer, and then it was time learn. The teacher was pretty cool, it was pretty much learning about all the different kinds of insurance and the laws on the practice of insurance selling. Well, the first day was bad for me, I mean, being I didn’t get any sleep the previous night took a huge toll for me. I wasn’t clicking at all, even coffee wasn’t doing anything for me. The class session lasted eight hours, and then after class I got study for another four hours! Hurray for me! But that wasn’t it, during that class, the teacher said I was supposed to be paired with someone in my class with the hotel room, and I wasn’t, in fact, no one in the class was. So, after the class was over and got back to the hotel, I had to move all the stuff I brought to my new room, which was only down the hallway. However, the next day I managed a good night sleep, and even got up at 5:00 with no problems. The second day is now where it got pretty interesting: on Monday the environment the trainers were showing us seemed to be like we were in the “Disneyland” of the corporate world, because everyone was smiling and friendly and all that good junk. Well, needless to say, that was flushed down the tubes when just before the class was out for the day, our teacher was asked to go out of the class to talk to someone, and in a few minutes after that, she came back pretty upset and started packing up all of her belongings and left. After she left, everyone in the class stopped working on the homework and we just started going about, “What Happened?” Then, after about ten to fifteen minutes after our teacher left, two people cam into the class and loathe and behold, they said our teacher was leaving due to personal reasons and our replacement was the man who designed the training course! So, talk about a change in events or what? So now we have a new instructor and everyone was supposedly back to normal and so on, but dam nit I was getting used to the other instructor’s teaching style, and now I have to adjust to a new person? Man, so anyways we continue on our training for the week and we’re just cramming away for our big test on Friday, it was sort taking me some time to learn all this information pretty quickly, but I still kept soldiering on shoveling all the stuff I was to know. However, as they said Friday was the day to test, the seat for testing were all full! So that meant only two of the students got to do the test on Friday, and the rest on Saturday. Guess when I got to test, on Saturday. At least it gave me an extra day to soak more info into my head. Then Saturday rolls around, and I have to drive in Schaumburg, which is only about fifteen miles away from the hotel, and take the lovely exam. I think getting to the testing facility was the easiest thing of the week! Anyway, I took the exam, there were two parts to it, the General Information on Insurance and the Laws connected to Insurance. I did good and bad, I did good on the law because I passed on that part, but I failed the General Information. I got a 68 on that part, and the passing score was 70. AHHHH! Well, I have talked to a couple people about it, and there was this one girl that had the same exact score as I did and they let her take the test again during the next week, so I guess I can be relieved about that, but I have to pay another exam fee. The cost to do an exam is $103, which I had to pay already for the first time, and now I got to pay another one. YAY! At least, however, I only have to take the insurance part of the exam, and not the law being I passed that one. So, after returning to the hotel, I called my instructor about my results, being that he said to do so afterward, and went to the whirlpool at the hotel to soak myself in some water and loosen my tighten muscles. This week, though, as been sort of a learning time for me, not just for insurance, but as to where I am in life. For the past five to six years now, the jobs I have had became more upscale, more professional. It seems like I am climbing up the success stairwell one step at a time, slowly but surely. Then, during the week, something just hit me; I am in the Big Leagues now. I mean, I am in a level of the working place that a lot of people tried to get into, but failed and quit, but I still have a Minor League attitude on things. I think it’s time for me to change my view on work and play with the Big League players. For this, I do have to owe a great appreciation to the people that supported me on this journey, but most of all, the LTD team that I am part of. I think if it wasn’t for them, the interview I had would have been a disaster. Either way, this is going to be the job I am going Diamond with. There’s no turning back now, my goal is set, and the best part of this, I am going to take my best friends for the ride.
