For years I've dreamed of working in the computer field, and I
did for about four months in 2004 when I worked at a computer store
in Denver.
I went into that job knowing that the store was going out of
business. In the short time I was there, I sold many computers
(both Macs and PCs), and I was the main Mac tech,so I was in charge
of setting up Macs for sale and repairing machines under warranty
(there weren't many of those).
Back in the fall of 2003, I spent some time volunteering in the
computer lab at a local elementary school. This was the same school
that I'd gone to as a kid, and I still know a number of teachers
there. Until last year, we lived only three houses away from that
school.
That was where I met a very important person in my life, Kevin
Gallagher. He is the computer lab teacher and head Mac tech at the
school. He'd just started working at the school when another
teacher introduced us. When he saw my abilities, he decided to let
me help him manage the school's computers.
In the time I worked with him, I was in charge of setting up all
of the computers in the lab, giving them RAM upgrades, and
upgrading them to OS X.
I was also in charge of inventorying all the computers in the
school. That meant going to every classroom, getting the serial
number of each computer, plugging every one in, checking how much
memory it had and how big a hard drive, and so on.
I was also in charge of making "house calls" - when something
went wrong with a machine, I went to the classroom and performed
repairs.
And whenever I had a minute and was in the lab, I helped the
kids learn how to use Mac OS X.
In doing all of this, I quickly became the school's "Assistant
Macintosh Manager".
I worked fairly short hours when I did this, mainly from 1:30
p.m. to about 4:30 p.m. for about a month.
Unfortunately, as soon as I finished inventorying the school's
computer equipment, the principal of the school decided that
because I wasn't a student of Denver Public Schools, I couldn't
volunteer for them any longer. (I was volunteering; I don't
understand what difference it made whether I was enrolled with that
school district or not.)
Kevin and I are still good friends to this day, and I'm still
looking for a job in the computer field, hoping that someone will
see my abilities and put me to work. 
