On September 11th, 2001 at 7:00 am I was returning home from dropping Vanessa off at Alta High School. I turned on NPR on the car radio to hear the news that the first airliner had struck the World Trade Center in New York. For the next few hours I sat on the little purple love seat at the foot of our bed watching the TV as the next aircraft struck the other tower and then as both towers crumbled to the ground. Little did I know the impact the events of that morning woudl have on my life and livelihood.
As the skies over America were cleared of all aircraft and continued for three days, Banana Travel, the business I had spent fifteen years building, collapsed. By August 2002 Banana was gone. I was 49 years old. Neither Laura nor I had jobs and neither Laura nor I had formal educations.
I began looking for new opportunities. Along with some friends, I tried to start another business, but by May 2003, it too crumbled. By this point Laura had found a part time job at the Draper Library to help support Brett on his mission to Belgium and I took a travel job with American Express at Novell in Provo. Our combined incomes were only one third of what I made at Banana!
In September 2004 American Express held an Education Fair at their Taylorsville call center. There, I began talking to Tim Dennis from the University of Phoenix. That day, the pieces of my life began to come back together.
I enrolled in UOP's Bachelor of Science Business Program. It was a three year commitment where I eventually was awarded a BS in Business and one in Marketing. However, it was the first instructor, Sonia Farnsworth, which had the largest impact on my time at Phoenix.
Sonia had assigned the class a short paper to write. I don't even recall the subject. All I remember is sitting down at my computer and an amazing story flowed through my fingertips. When I posted the paper to Sonia, I included this note. "Sonia, I don't know if this is what the assignment was, but I sure had fun writing this story."
I got an A! After the next class, Sonia pulled me aside and asked if I had ever thought about being published. I assured her I had not. She said I should. The paper wasn't even close to the assigned topic, but the paper was worthy of being published. On that basis, she awarded me the A.
About this same time my son Thomas decided to write a book. He was 17 at the time. He wrote a 300 page, handwritten manuscript. Boy, was I impressed and proud. I encouraged him to type it into the computer and then he sent out 30 copies to different publishers.
In 2006 Thomas left for his mission to Seattle. I was nearing the completion of my bachelor's program and wondered what I should do with my new degree. Work was routine and slow. I had a lot of time on my hands. One day while surfing the internet, I found an article about Ernest Hemmingway. His goal as a writer was to write 1000 words a day. I thought to myself, "I can do that." I had been writing 4000 word papers on a weekly basis for three years now. Surely I could write 1000 words. So I started to write. Because I was so impressed about Thomas' determination to write, I title my book, "The Adventures of Thomas Ables" and started writing. (Thomas’ middle name is Able)
On most days I was able to meet my 1000 word goal. Some days, however, I would write two or three thousand words. Half way through the book I scrapped it and started over. The whole process took about three months. When I was done I had a 350 page, typewritten manuscript. That was July 2007. That same month, I graduated from Phoenix the first time.
At the encouragement of Tim Dennis, I decided to continue my education and start work on an MBA. I started in October 2007. Again in my first class, fate stepped in and sat me next to a gentleman named, Bruce Gowen. Bruce was a publisher! Funny, how things like this work. I gave Bruce a copy of my manuscript and several months later, May of 2008 I think, they accepted it and agreed to publish it and assigned me an editor, Kristine Princevalle.
I am now three weeks from completing the MBA program! Yahooooo! My book is due out soon (as soon as the never ending editing is completed). Bruce has agreed, in principle (no signed contract yet) to print the sequel. Laura and my combined income is now half of what I made at Banana. (What an improvement!) I will soon have my third degree!
I always thought of the University of Phoenix as a school that started in Phoenix, Arizona. But now I look at the title completely different. My life over the past four and a half years has literally begun to rise from the ashes of 9/11. I am a Phoenix.
Three more weeks!
Alice and me and our Bug Eyes....
