Mistakes you only make once

I was 17 and it was the summer after high school. My uncle knew a guy who managed a well respected Mom and Pop auto shop right here in my neighborhood and got me a job there changing oil. It was my first job ever. I only lasted one day.

I had to change oil on a diesel truck. Was doing fine getting the thing up on the lift, got the oil drained out fine. Lowered the truck back down and they had one of those hoses attached to the ceiling that you just spray oil out of. So I dump 12 quarts or whatever the engine required into it and was pretty proud of myself for a job well done. That was until I looked down at my feet and noticed I was standing in the middle of a lake of oil. I had forgotten to put the drain plug back in :banghead:

Boss told me not to fret, just required some cleanup but at least nothing was damaged. So I got that all cleaned up and thought ok at least I got my screw up out of the way. Now it's time to get back to work.

I changed oil in some little 4 banger ricer after that. Remembered the drain plug this time. Topped the oil off and went to close the hood. As I started to pull the hood down, I felt the tension from the hood springs and I slammed it shut. Except this hood didn't have springs....it had one of those short 10" sticks to hold it up that went right up in the corner of the hood. I put a massive dent in the hood, right where that stick jammed right through it. I hung my head in shame and went and told the boss that this probably wasn't the job for me. He was very nice about it and just told me to finish the day cleaning the shop up. The customer wasn't too mad either. I didn't want to accept it but he paid me for the day and that was it for me. I seriously thought I'd never become a productive member of society after that experience lol.