When you start taking the first step on the ladder of life, it's hard to go in blind. At least, according to my father, Bob Jackson, during his young life he didn't know where to start. With a father who worked shifts in a factory, there wasn't much to do. Yet, speaking to him, I realized that whatever path one takes, change can always be for the better. Coming out of high school, my father was caught between a rock and a hard place, not knowing what careers, colleges, or opportunities were presenting themselves, he jumped straight into a world of madness, with little guidance. Being the oldest in his family and coming from a town like Brainerd, Minnesota, he only had his parents to base his future on. Yet what his father did was the last thing he wanted to do. Shift work at Potlatch Paper Company was not on his radar. His only option was to head straight to college. My father began his general studies at Brainerd Community College and planned to continue his academic career in pharmacy. As his academic journey progressed, he realized that BCC could only take him so far. After two years of hard work, he headed to North Dakota State University and attempted to enter the pharmacy program. Still, I knew my father didn't do pharmacy, so I asked what happened to that dream and what response I received. Dad said, “Given the high demand for pharmacists at the time, the program only accepted students whose high school and college GPA was a perfect 4.0, so I decided to move to polymers and coatings. However, after I started studying this field, I realized that I didn't want to work in this field, so I switched to organic chemistry because the courses were similar. While he...... middle of paper ...... and travel took him away from home, he was also able to visit many interesting places, including most of the continental United States , as well as Bussan, South Korea. . As my father progressed in sales, he moved from sales engineer to sales manager, but he still had the same job description, just with added responsibilities. As Dad's career progressed, he has now become President at Stern. His duties grew into responsibility for most of the previous roles he held, including sales, customer service, engineering, quality assurance and production, but Dad has plans to go even further. So, in conclusion, I found a person who started in one position and never saw himself going any further. Yet as he began to find satisfaction in what he was doing, he realized that others saw additional potential and decided to climb the ladder to success..