Erik Hammer Reflection

Sitting on the couch relaxed, Erik Hammer, my father, contemplates the questions asked about his past and the impact it has on him today. He recalls the fond memories of college and recollects the good and bad moments that made him the man he is currently. Due to college, he gained copious amounts of skills that he uses in an average workday or around the house, he learned how to work with people and problems, and he grasped a hold of adult life. He goes on to say how college revealed real-life situations to him and how he grew into a more mature version of himself. “When I left the house I was excited,” says Erik, “but I did not know or understand the various different actions that are required to live on your own or how much effort it takes to have a family.” He soon gets a better understanding of the idea of supporting others when he gave up his dream of majoring in forestry because, “ I learned if I wanted to have a family and a better future for myself, I would need to be making a good salary.” This recognition, made him consider the future and how his actions now affect him later.
Going on, after majoring in forestry for some time and becoming aware of the income, Erik switched to a business major.
He elaborates on why he went into business saying, “I was always good at management, finances, and solving problems, which is necessary for all business.” In college, he worked various different management jobs and one, in particular, stood out to him, being the manager at Mulligan’s Pub and Grub. “I fired many clients and learned how to work with customers.”, says Erik. From being in management at Mulligan’s he was taught many skills, related to customer service, human resources and managing over many people. This helped him later in life in his business management job at Boeing, where he had to do similar
tasks. In his third year of college, Erik decided to take a risk. He was a shy person, who was never truly interested in school, getting B and Cs, but he decided to try something new and go out of his comfort zone. He signed up for a foreign exchange program that would send him to Amsterdam in Europe. He was sent halfway across the world for six months, where he would go to a business school with other foreign exchange students. He states, “being in another country was eye-opening. I worked with culturally diverse people and found out how to deal with dilemmas. It was also one step of being closer to being out on my own.” This event helped him assimilate the skills required of being able to work on your own and how to compromise with others. To conclude, learning lessons, realizing you have to work hard to live on your own, attaining expertise in certain areas, and understanding how to deal with problems was a small portion of the events that took place when Erik was “coming of age”. Erik says that he now knew how to work in management or to live on his own but now understood that, “maturing is not learning how to live like an adult, but it is learning that becoming an adult and learning these lessons doesn’t automatically make your life simpler, but instead, helps you gain a sense of the world around you and improves your understanding of seeing life as it is meant to be.