My First Job: George Borchers, campus director

July 3, 2005

My First Job: George Borchers, campus director

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George Borchers

Current position: Campus director of Pima Medical Institute in Renton, a private medical-vocational school.

First job: Commercial roofing. I was 14 when my grandfather decided that a summer job was just the ticket to keep a boy busy in the summer. A friend of his ran a roofing company, and they needed a helper.

Pay: Around 75 cents an hour. In 1963 that was a fair amount of spending money.

What I learned: The greater lessons showed up only later in life, having to do with understanding that hard work is nothing to be afraid of, and also knowing that I really wanted to make my living with my mind rather than my back. Memories of that first summer job did more to keep me on track and focused in college than many of the subjects I studied. Sometimes it's not so much knowing what we want to do as it is knowing what we don't want to do.

The greater lessons showed up only later in life, having to do with understanding that hard work is nothing to be afraid of, and also knowing that I really wanted to make my living with my mind rather than my back. Memories of that first summer job did more to keep me on track and focused in college than many of the subjects I studied. Sometimes it's not so much knowing what we want to do as it is knowing what we don't want to do.

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