u/Old_Meringue_3708

I’m 24 and about to hit 6 months as an installer for supermarkets mostly Walmarts. I’m brand new to the trades and I have loved my experience so far and like what I do more every day. I’ve learned so much in a short amount of time and still feel like I know nothing. So I feel like this is the right trade for me since I love learning and want to know as much as I can.

So my question is what are typical career paths in this trade? My company is a non union company so is union something I should look into or does it not matter much. As the first in my family to go the trade route I don’t have much guidance on what is good and bad so it’s on me to figure it out.

Are there jobs in this field that aren’t overnight? Because while I like the overnight schedule right now I probably won’t like it if I have kids I can see that being difficult. If I do work overnights with kids how do you guys work around that?

And lastly my goal is to eventually own my own house and be able to learn do a lot of the work myself. Do I learn skills to do some residential HVAC work as well? Or if that’s something that interests me should I look into traditional HVAC jobs.

Overall I’m happy and really excited to be part of this and think it’s the right fit for me I just wanted to hear from people that have done this to get advice and hear experiences or stories.

I (26M) have been with my girlfriend for over a year now and things have been for the most part good. She has been overall a good girlfriend and I do really love her however I have one problem which is I still think about my ex. We broke up 4 years ago and I have tried everything not to think about her I have not initiated a text for over two years and she is unadded on everything. There have been people in between but she is the only one I find myself thinking about. Last time we talked she randomly texted and said she still had feelings for me and this was after 2 years of doing no contact. I said I was dating my current girlfriend and shut it down because I didn’t want to be messy. I then told my current girlfriend about it and we talked about it so there were no secrets. However I still think about her almost every day even with years of no contact. I know it’s awful and I feel like an absolute asshole but it feels like there is nothing I can do about it. I’ve tried everything to let go but yet it still lingers. My guess is that I have never felt more loved and supported by anyone when I was with my ex. So the other day I started a conversation with my girlfriend and said that I don’t feel fully supported and I really want to work on it with her. I wish I could talk to her about this just to get it off my chest but I feel like I can’t tell her without actually being an asshole and it’s eating me away inside. I just want to do the right thing and feel like I have no real options other than continue keeping this to myself to not hurt my girlfriend’s feelings. I know this is written like a mess I just don’t know what else to do other than to ask strangers for advice.