February the twelfth 1971.
After I spent many days looking for a job, I finally found a job at the port. I found a job to work in the sea as a fishing man for an old rich man named Richard Bonared.
Richard was well known in Dublin for his business he had a hotel, 2 restaurants, a couple of buildings of apartments and 3 farms with a bout.
On the previous day I asked at the port for a job, and they told me that he was hiring do I headed to him, when I saw him, Mr. Richard was having his lunch at one of the restaurants he owns, the people at the port told me that he was 63 years old, but the guy that was on the restaurant seemed like a 45 years old man, Mr. Richard was very clean and wore an amazing tuxedo, once you see him you know that he is rich. I waited for him till he finished his food then I went to his table while he was waiting for his dessert and said with unconfident tone on my voice while rubbing my fingers against each:
- Sir, I heard that you were hiring for a new crew and I was wondering if you could hire me.
Mr. Richard looked at me with his sky-blue eyes and asked me:
- I am hiring but I would want to know why are you looking for this job? Did you drop out of school?
I knew that he would ask me that question; I did not want to tell him my actual story because the others did not believe it which made me know that he won't believe me either. This pushed me to tell him a lie:
- Yeah, I realized that school was not the right place for me, I want to make money and I am horrible at school.
The servant served Mr. Richard his dessert which was a plate of strawberries; he picked one and split it in half then ate the half and said to me on a very soft tone:
- I will hire you but when you have to tell me your actual story now!
That shocked me and drew a big smile on my face, I leaned down to thank him and I said:
- Thank you! Thank you, sir! Thank you very much!
Then I stood up and started telling him about my story and by my story I mean the Cosmos family thing, He listened to me very carefully and eventually he told me with a little smile on his face:
- You are welcome Walter to this job; I hope that I can see you tomorrow on the early morning at the port.
Then he left, I got very happy and went back home to tell Mike and Vanessa about my new job, luckily, I did spend the previous few years on telling them that I would want to start my own business.
At 08:25 p.m. I got home and talked to them about my new job, Mike did not like it, he said to me with an angry tone:
- No, you are only 15 years old! You need at least to get a degree before leaving school! This is inappropriate!
I did not want to make it a long conversation because eventually he will realize that I know about the money situation so I just said to him:
- Thank you, a lot, for your concerns Sir Mike but I can see in the end of this road a very successful and pleasing life, it is the best road for me if I want to start my own business.
I said that to him like I meant it just so that he can relax, he looked at my eyes and saw how determinate I was and said to me:
- If this is what you really want then you have my approval, but promise me if you have any kind of problems or worries or discomfort you will stop working.
I promised him that and we had a normal dinner afterwards.
The first day at work.
On my very first day, I woke up at 4 a.m. had my breakfast then wore my clothes and I headed to the port, when I got to the airport it was 4:35 a.m. already and it was very cold, I went all the way to where Mr. Richard told me to go, when I got there, I found over 30 men in the bout, Mr. Richard was there already talking to the workers with his bright smile and making them laugh, he had a very strong positive vibe. After he noticed me, he yelled
- Walter! My son Walter! Come over here let me show you the bout and your new friends!
I got on the bout and a co-worker helped me to do so, Mr. Richard shook my hand and introduced me to all the other workers and introduced them to me one by one, I felt welcomed and comfortable, one of the workers that seemed young and near to my age, his name was Albert Eliot he was only 4 years older than me. Mr. Richard asked him to teach me what things should I do, he started by telling me about the materials of the bout which took us the half of the day to get over with, then he told me to clean some places and told me about some tricks to clean faster and easier. After that Albert brought to me the lunch, it was bread with well-cooked cow meat. I did not expect that on lunch I expected something like beans, it made me very happy, after I finished eating Albert took me to the deck where he told me to help them to drop the fishing net like them, at the beginning I did a couple of mistakes but Albert and some other co-workers helped me through them without making me feel bad about myself. After we finished throwing it we cleaned the deck and we sat on a room, then the oldest man Brad sat with us and he started on telling us a couple of stories, his way of telling stories was amazing, somehow he makes everyone live inside the story, it was an amazing night.