We found out today that Thak passed four more ASE exams! That means he is now nationally licensed in six areas. Two more, he needs, and he will officially be a Master Automotive Technician. As it is, with this most recent round of successful exams, he has placed himself in the highest pay category for private sector jobs. (They break it down very simply: No ASE's = lube tech, very low pay. 3 ASE's = tech, mid-pay. 5+ ASE's = supervisory, master level, best pay.) So basically, one may be curious why one would try to get more than 5 if 5 will get you to the best pay level in most private sector jobs. Well, it's good to have more than the minimum. It's especially good to have national certification as a Master in your field. Federal jobs may like that better. Plus, you get to wear a gold patch instead of a silver one. Being a Master Tech is a very good thing, and there is no reason not to go for it.
So basically, what Thak needs now is to retake Engine Performance and Automatic Transmissions. Engine Performance is a very hard one which he took before, and will be taking a more advanced class in, starting next week. It has a lot to do with emissions, and is very number-heavy. He is moderately good at math, so there's no reason he can't do it, but it was a very hard test, and he will have to study hard to pass it. Having failed it once before, he knows this. Automatic Transmissions, he procrastinated on getting a study guide for, and by the time he thought to, we couldn't find one in El Paso, and it was too late to order it, so he didn't get to study for it aside from what he could get out of his school books, so that one was basically just a good way to flush $46 down the toilet. The good news is that he will retake them, KNOWING that the tests are hard, and pass next time. He's never had to take a test more than twice, knock on wood. By the way, it does not reflect poorly that he didn't pass these two on the first try. They are the hardest tests, and nobody we know passed those tests the first time they took them. Retakes are very common, and as long as he passes them next time, he's good.
It also occurs to me that as of today, Thak has tied his school's record for most ASE exams passed by an Automotive Technology student. If he passes even one more, and I don't see why he wouldn't, he will set a new record.
It's funny that Army friends act funny when we're happy about these things, because we are rare people who have actually spent years preparing for the day the Army would be over for us. We're still happy, though. It is good to be getting somewhere. He's had several job offers, too. Unfortunately they did not include what the starting pay was with the offers, so we haven't really done anything with any of them yet because we're trying to sniff them out through people we know in the field, and kind of figure out what we're dealing with. (Job offers are great, but someone with Thak's years of experience and licensing is not going to accept a job that pays $15 an hour, for example, and pay varies so wildly in the automotive field, you really need to know what you're working with before moving on anything.) I do think it's funny how much this distances us from most everything either of us has known for the major part of our adult lives. It's good to be solidly sure of being able to move on, though. I know a lot of people's husbands got out and then came right back in. Mine spent the last two years of his Army time going to school full time so we wouldn't have to deal with that.
We're getting the same old comments about how it's not some sparkling utopia out there, as if we thought it was... No, we know it's not. That's exactly WHY we've put so much into preparing for Thak to get out, because it's NOT that good out there. Only the very smart and extremely marketable survive. We're born with whatever intelligence we have so that is what it is, but the marketability, we've sacrificed heavily for. Unlike most vets, we know that military experience doesn't get a person nearly as much as the recruiter tells you it will. (What the hell does the recruiter know about that anyhow? He's still in the Army. Only people who have gotten out know just how little military experience, in absence of civilian licensing, really gets you in the real world.)
It may not be ok with a lot of people that we're so happy about being so close to this, and that things are beginning to fall into place big time, but we are. We know people are placing bets on how long it will take before we are back on post, with one in a uniform. We don't see ourselves ever coming back to the Active Duty life, though. It plainly wasn't for us. We loved being single soldiers, but with a family, this is the opposite of what we wanted, and that is why we've done this crazy thing for the past nearly two years, and given up nearly all the time we would be able to spend as a family, in order for Thak to go to school. Bet on our failure all you want, but we haven't worked this hard, and sacrificed this much, for nothing.
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