Duane Thorup--The Apprentice!

Dear Lancers,

I wanted to tell each of you reading this how my experience with the reunion picnic was. I regret my wife and I were unable to attend the dance and I wanted to be there so much but we had family obligations to attend to. I would like to say that being at the picnic was a little bit of heaven for me. I mean this with all my heart because I experienced joy at being there and being with those who I grew up with going to school. There was no other place I wanted to be at the moment. It was a pleasure to see so many familiar faces and to see so many of you had been doing well with your lives, families and careers. It was good to hear of your experiences since we last met and to know you are well. I was also pleased to hear from those who may have had a rough time since graduation yet were striving to get themselves back on their feet. Prayers are answered. When we left the picnic and saw others leaving I was sad because I knew, for many of us, it would be a long time before we would meet again. I know all of us will meet again someday. I look forward to that time and hope all of you choose to make the best of your lives.

I would like to fill in the large gaps I left behind in my first submission to the blog. Here it goes:

After graduation I went to work in construction with my uncle at the Flying J refinery and at Alliantech (used to be Bacchus and Hercules). There I had it easy in school. The winter of 1999-2000 I submitted paperwork to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Soon I received a call to serve in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Mission. I left in the spring of 1998. During the mission I served in Aston, PA; Harrington, Delaware; Pottsville, PA ; West Philadelphia and Roslyn, PA Areas. The experience was life changing, though I regret, I could have been much better prepared for such an undertaking and would have served others far better had I done so. After coming home in the spring of 2000 I went to college at SLCC. I spent a semester in the engineering program and then changed my major to business management and did that for a semester. I also attended the Institute at SLCC. While attending college, I had many good and not so good experiences. I put college on hold in January of 2001 and went to work at a cabinet mill for three months, which was a terribly monotonous and dangerous job( yes, I still have all my fingers). In March I took a job as an apprentice in heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration trade. Before I accepted the job, my uncle, who apprised me of the job, told me all about it. He said,"you will be dealing with high pressure gases, deep vacuums,toxic chemicals, caustic chemicals, explosive gases, asphyxiating gases, extreme noise, hot and cold working conditions, cramped spaces, ladders and extreme heights, high voltage electricity and you will get paid well after getting experience.” So I said,"sounds like an adventure to me, where do I sign up?” There are days I wish I had never signed up but I cannot complain that this job has been an adventure in many ways and has kept me in good shape. It was also during this time I decided to attend the Singles Ward and it was there I met my future wife, Chreslie.

Up to that point my dating life after high school had been one frustration after another. I was to a point where I was about ready to give up all together, at least for a long time and just go back to college. While at the singles ward I dated a couple of other girls without any success, during which time I was friends with Chreslie. In June, I decided to take Chreslie out and it was all over from there. I proposed marriage in July and we were married in the Salt Lake Temple on November 1st, 2001. Our weddingday was perfect. We stayed in an apartment in Kearns for a year and then we stayed at her parents home to house sit for them while they served a mission in Chattanooga, TN. During that time we had our first child, Alexandria. I was continuing to work with the same company up until they laid me off in the fall of 2004 while wewere expecting our next two children. I spent the next six weeks trying to find a job in the same trade but with no success. I did find a job after the Holidays at another outfit that did the same thing as my last job, except my job position was that of parts and warehouse manager. Basically I got to sit at a desk and order parts for the technicians and keep the warehouse clean and organized and take care of shipping and receiving. In March we had our next two children, Hyrum and Hannah. The Following August we moved to Tooele to rent a home from my Brother and Sister in-law for a year.The parts manager job did not pay well and I finally got laid off in February of 2006, while expecting our fourth child. I got a job with the same Uncle I worked for after high school working at the Flying J and Chevron oil refineries doing more hard labor for six more months.

Initially they started me out working with the electricians then they moved me onto the carpenters crew building and setting form work and pouring and finishing concrete. In August my Brother and sister-in- law decided to move back into their home in Tooele and so we had to move back with my wife's parents. I also decided to get back into the HVACR trade since I had over three and a half years of my time invested in it. I found a job with a small residential HVAC company in West Valley that made every effort to teach me how tolie to and cheat customers at every opportunity (I don't think the company exists any more). After three months of the boss yelling at me and unfulfilled promises of job training and benefits and working long hours for little pay, I finally quit and finished getting the certification I needed to make me marketable as an HVAC technician. I found a job two weeks after quitting up in the Ogden area and have been employed there ever since. I am reasonably happy at my current job. We are still living in West Valley City with my In-Laws and are working to get out of medical debt(kids are really expensive to have). We hope to be homeowners in the next couple of years. Eventually, I hope to be able to go back to college and learn how to do something that doesn't require so much wear and tear on my body. I look back and have many regrets about how I treated others and myself yet I know I can look forward, with the wisdom I have gained from the “School of hardknocks”, and have hope for a better, happier future for myself and my family.

Duane Thorup
dcthorup@yahoo.com