I like to tell people that I was raised by \u201cold school\u201d parents, but this is just a nice way of saying they were strict and religious.<\/p>\n
I was the oldest of three siblings, and the only boy.<\/em> <\/p>\n My father openly told me that girls needed their father\u2019s love, and boys only needed discipline. That was the sort of upbringing I had, where boys and girls were treated very differently. I was made to get a full time job in the construction business when I was 17, and ever since then I have worked for a living. Now I am employed by a local HVAC contractor, who has taken me under her wing and taught me things my parents never did. My father was shocked to hear that the HVAC contractor was a woman. Jenny is the sole owner of the company, and also the lead HVAC technician for all installation projects. To a caveman like Dad who thinks that the HVAC industry isn\u2019t suitable for women, Jenny scares him! I am just glad she doesn\u2019t hold his views against me, because she has become my mentor in the HVAC industry and I am learning so much from her. Jenny tells me that over the next few months she will start giving me solo HVAC projects to complete. As much as I like working side-by-side with Jenny, I know that I have to be able to handle tasks on my own. Who knows, maybe in a few years I will have enough experience to become an independent HVAC contractor myself. <\/p>\n