Friends
James Edwards
James tells how he and his friends chose their careers.
Shortly after the workshop, one of people featured in this film was getting married and James, as best man, intended to show this film instead of his speech!
Transcript
The way I look at life, you have two tracks: your family and your friends. If you’re very unlucky you have neither, if you’re lucky you have one of the two so when things go wrong, the other puts you back on line. If you’re very lucky you have the both, and that’s me.
I have a very good family, and some very good friends. My friends are very important, especially my three best buds. We have shared some amazing experiences and are all true believers in fate.
We met at a school in Bristol. None of us really had any aspirations or paths to follow and we all made a mockery of the careers teacher, but we all shared a passion for football and myself and Rob shared trials for England under-eighteens and spent eight good years playing semi-professional football but we both had to quit due to injury.
Rob spent most of his college years selling fake designer clothes from the back of his car, then spent many years bouncing round from job to job but kept on telling us about starting a business one day. He took the plunge and opened up a designer clothes shop which has turned out to be very successful.
Tom spent most of his college time playing football and going to the bookies with his Irish dad. He finished his Masters degree in economics and had to move to London as there were limited jobs in his field of work in Bristol. He now manages a very busy betting office and sets the odds for major sporting events like football, though his tips about the World Cup weren’t the best [England were knocked out before the quarter-finals in the 2006 world cup].
Myself and Alton finished our degrees after two attempts. I started a Sports Science degree and wanted to become a Sports Development Officer but was told there was limited jobs, so dropped out and started a Planning and Architecture degree instead.
Alton, who spent most of his college days playing football and drawing eventually finished his degree in Aerodynamic Engineering and now works for Airbus designing aeroplanes
And me? Well I finished my degree and started a job in architects but I didn’t enjoy it, so started doing some work in casual football coaching. I was spotted and offered a job as… yep, you guessed it… a Sports Development Officer. Ain’t fate a funny old thing?
None of us knew what we wanted to do, but have ended up doing jobs we enjoy and I think that’s down to the support we gave each other.
Thanks boys.
[A gong sounds]
