I did stick it out and graduated from high school. Six days later I was a United States Marine recruit. After the Marines, I joined the Guard and I used my GI Bill to get my degree in Accounting. And both of my parents were immigrants, so I had zero help from them. If you want to get somewhere in life, you have work for it. Working at a KFC is probably not going to get you too far, although some people do make it to the managerial level. I suspect Mr Kemp has nothing saved up for retirement and will probably have to work until he dies, because the pittance he's going to get from Social Security isn't going to be enough to live on. There's a part of me that wants to feel sorry him and others like him, but this is the land of opportunity and you have to be willing to put forth in order to succeed.
I know enough about the fast food industry to know that if you show up every day with a positive attitude and you do your job well and with enthusiasm, you will become at minimum a shift supervisor within six months to a year. The industry is starved for talent. They can hire 16 year olds to toss chicken parts into a fryer. What they need are reliable people who are willing to take some responsibility and show some initiative.
“I did stick it out and graduated from high school. “
You are right the guy should have stayed in school a bit longer. But just as importantly he should have worked to develop skills that are needed. He could have, even without a high school diploma, enrolled in a culinary arts institute. You don’t develop the skills used in good restaurants that pay more frying chicken at KFC. You can’t be a manager of the KFC without a high school diploma.
I admire the guy for continuing to work but he would have been better going into a field like landscaping or construction where hard work pays off. Roofers can make a good living
I am the exception that proves this rule in that I have neither a valid HS diploma or a valid GED.
I dropped out at 16 and took a GED before I was eligible because it was obvious to me that me teachers knew less than I did about almost every subject. The ISD would not let me back in school because I’d passed the GED but the State wouldn’t give me a GED because I was 16. I took a SAT and scored 1475 when 1600 was a perfect score (I was 16 and had not preparation) That score got me into university. I have a BA (US History), a MLIS (Academic Libraries)a MA (Asian Studies) and a PhD (Educational Philosophy)
I retired as the Head of Catalog for a university library system