Cultureshock

You need Adobe Flash installed to watch this movie.
Get Adobe Flash

Video transcript

At the age of 15, leaving school, no job prospects, looking towards an uncertain future and apparently this is when the world is supposed to be your oyster but for me and our family circumstances dictated the next move. My employment started in a funny way, with a ‘rat,tat,tat’ on the front door, and a message being conveyed to my mother by the fellow next door "Tell Sam he starts on Monday at the steel mill, report for duty at 7.30am sharp and wear overalls and boots". When Mam broke the news I felt many emotions all at the same time, I was shocked, stunned and surprised, here I was completing my education on Friday, and actually having to go to work, no chance of a holiday, a decent break, nothing, absolutely nothing and having to go out into the big wide world and become a man.

29 years later all is gone, factory, friends, and the fun have all disappeared and I must look once more to my future, our future. Working in that environment taught me a lot about people, their issues and, more importantly, about me as an individual, becoming more tolerant, more understanding with all those around me. In a job that was hard, heavy and extremely hot, but well paid, here I was left on the scrap heap, signing on the dole for the first time in my life, having to become a sponger, a no hoper and a loser. At least that's how society sees people like me and looking back at my life things haven't changed a great deal, people who through no fault of their own find themselves in these strange circumstances.  

The year is 1999, my thoughts reflect on this devastating period for me and my family as we look to what seems an uncertain future and time in our lives. Things seem to go from bad to worse as one catastrophe after another hits me and the whole family as tragic news comes through of a death.

Losing one's job is a bit like having a death in the family, coping with it, coming through it, dealing with it and believing that as the song say's ‘Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life’. After a while new doors suddenly become open to me, and new avenues of employment become available and I'm now having a complete makeover in my life and enjoying life to the full. 

In many ways dying is a part of life but it doesn't make it any easier when you have to pick up the pieces and try to move on, but this was something that we as a family had to do. At least the memories left behind by those we loved are things that we can reflect on that will at times either bring a tear or a smile.