09/09/2026
Chapter 14: Finding My Way After Graduation
1994–1999
After I graduated, I had little to no idea what I was supposed to do next regarding looking for a job. I had been so locked in on finishing school, I had not thought about my plans for life after college. The idea that I’d be going back home to Seattle came up on me real fast. I found myself somewhat lost in transition again. I didn’t have my own place, I didn’t have a car, and for sure I didn’t have any money.
When I reflect on my childhood memories, I often said, “I can’t wait until I grow up.” However, the older I get, and reality strikes, it will really makes me wish I could hit the rewind button and be that kid again and just have those kid problems.
While everyone loaded up and headed back to Seattle, Shannon and his girlfriend, Ursula, stayed to help me pack up all my stuff and follow me back home. My new girlfriend, Frankie, who had come over with them, was going to help me drive the U-Haul with all my furniture and personal things to Seattle. However, Shannon’s Chevy K5 Blazer’s rear differential broke, and he had to leave it to get repaired at the Chevrolet dealership in Pullman.
“We all not fitting up front in this small-ass truck,” Shannon said.
“We’ll ride in the back and sit on the couch,” I said. “I got someone keeping me company for sure, and we’ll be fine. And I’ll bang on the wall when we gotta stop to use the bathroom or get some fresh air.”
We both busted out loud laughing. “Sh*t, okay,” said Shannon. “We got to get home—f**k it. We together. Let’s do it.”
We rode five hours in the back of a U-Haul to Seattle. When we’d pull over to a rest area, Shannon would bang on the back door and yell.
“What’s the password?” he’d ask.
“Word!” Frankie and I would yell back to him. The password was taken from a scene in the Prince movie, Purple Rain.
When he opened the back, we would start laughing. People at the rest area would look at us and start laughing, too, knowing we were college students headed home.
It was a long, dark, hot, and loud trip, but we finally made it home, knowing we would have to make the trip back to WSU to pick up the Blazer.
Back at home in Seattle, my little brother and a family friend, Eric “Fig” Newton, wanted to go fishing one Saturday morning. As the three of us sat in a sixteen-foot aluminum Jon boat, Fig asked me, “B, do you want to get a job at Todd Shipyards?”
I asked him, “How am I going to do that?”
“The union hall just reopened their employment books,” Fig said, “and all we have to do is go down to the union hall and tell them we want to get back on the books, and they’ll give you a slip to fill out the application. Once you fill out the employment application, they will send you to go get a physical and take a drug test at WorkSource and you’ll be on.”
“Nigga, you lying,” I said.
“Nope, I’m dead fu***ng serious,” Fig said back, “and I’m going with you and we’ll do it together.”
Lo and behold, when we went down to the union hall, everything went exactly the way Fig said it would go. We both got hired and were officially on the books. The opportunity dropped right in my lap. I was employed as a longshoreman at Todd Shipyards. The job was sandblasting ships that needed rust repair work, and I would be holding a sandblaster and grinding metal all day long, which wasn’t easy work at all. I got two fifteen-minute breaks and a one-hour lunch break.
I had never worked for a shipyard or considered working as a longshoreman. It was a good job for coming out of college and not having a plan. The money was good and the work was hard, but it wasn’t a career move for me.
Rest Easy my guy Eric " Fig" Newton -2026
