Chapter 19

Andrew lay on his bed and thought about the summer. For the past three years, interrupted by his cancer fight, he had spent the time working at a combination of cerebral and manual work. This summer had ended up as a balance of the same thing. Instead of working in the camera shop or darkroom he had spent the time working for Brian Campbell using VisiCalc, and instead of working on a removal crew he had spent six weeks as a farmhand. But all three summers had resulted in him being paid, very well paid this year. Andrew needed to think about that money, probably best done as a review of where he was with his goals.

School. Given how it had been his whole world from February to June Andrew was surprised he had not thought about school all summer, he had been too busy. But in less than a week it was the start of 3^rd year (Grade 9 equivalent). Andrew had done very well in 2^nd year academically and ended up top of the year in both Maths and Physics. This was the last year where he would take Biology, he could drop it at the end of 3^rd year. Andrew’s goal was to stay near the top of the class across as many of the subjects as possible, he wanted to complete homework on the day that it was assigned and have read ahead on each of the subjects. School was still at the core of his identity.

Exercise and Fitness. This one had turned out to be something he enjoyed doing. He loved swimming now and could not wait to get back into the pool every morning. His plan for the term was to swim one stroke for 45 minutes and just alternate strokes each day. This would allow him to focus on swimming rather than counting laps and switching strokes, just swim for 45 minutes and enjoy the exercise. Andrew had been steady at 100 sit ups and 50 push ups all summer so it was now time to increase those. The goal was to double those numbers by the end of the school year so he was going to bump the totals by twenty and ten respectively every other month. He was still only going to run for 30 minutes but try to increase the speed, although he would get his dad to measure out some distances in the car and plot different routes and get some sense of how far he was running. The healthy eating was also now an acquired habit. Every Sunday his mum was going to make a huge stock pot of lentil soup, he had missed it for the last six weeks. Andrew planned to have it for breakfast and dinner every day. He still ate a lot of roast chicken as well. He made a note to look in the library for a book on teenage nutrition. Now that physically he showed no sign of the cancer he wanted to continue to eat healthily. The only physical sign left from his cancer was his hair and that was by design, he had got used to short hair. Although at a time of long hair and rock bands he didn’t fit the mould with a cropped head but he had come to prefer it. His father had picked up an old set of army clippers from a second hand store. After letting his mother all but sterilise them, ‘you have no idea where they have been’, one of his parents attached the #2 clip and cropped his hair, quick and easy, it took barely two minutes every Sunday night. Best of all it made drying off after swimming a breeze. During the summer he would be showered and changed in five minutes. Leslie would finally appear after 20 minutes with damp hair.

Computing. He now had a computer, and couldn’t believe it. It was also upgraded to 48K of RAM. Andrew could write and compile programs and sub-routines every day. Now he needed to figure out what the next step was. He could write some code, could install and fix some basic hardware and had a reasonable knowledge of the most important business software for the Apple. The first month of term he would have to think about what to do next.

Karmic balance. Andrew was pleased with this. He was working at the Food Bank warehouse every week and was enjoying it, and would not allow this time to be interfered with. The only week he had missed was the CCF camp. As importantly, he and Nikki had a friendship. He listened to her and on bad days she talked about the family pressures she was under. She was the only Greek that Andrew knew so he had nothing negative to say, it was just letting her vent. Andrew was finding that small things can often make a big difference. In some ways he felt he had helped others over the summer. He had definitely sacrificed his own time, had read nothing either fiction or school related for instance, to help both Mr. Campbell and the Strachans. Now he was being paid by both of them which tempered this to an extent but Andrew knew he had given his all and had definitely helped them both.

Personal balance and friendships. Cast iron, solid F for the first one. He had spent the most time in the last two months with; the Strachans, the Strachan’s employees, his best friend’s dad, his parents and his best friend. In that order. He had prioritised work over everything else but it was a one-off and he had learned a lot. However, Andrew also knew he needed to learn to say no. Nikki had emphasised that when they talked at the end of the summer. Friendships were better than balance but barely. Anchoring everything was Leslie. As they came out of their grief through the spring and summer their relationship had deepened, as Faith had hoped when she was alive. The key thing about it was that they missed each other. He had made acquaintances at the farm, at the Food Bank and even at the Commonwealth Pool. The only friend he could make a case for was Nikki. A 29 year old Greek-Scottish librarian being hassled to get married by her mother. He and Leslie were an odd couple but that was ridiculous. And then there was Kenzie. The first girl to express an interest in him. Now he had met her for a total of about seven hours over the space of one week but still. It was not just Kenzie specifically, and Andrew thought she was cute, it was the whole concept of girls liking him. He had not forgotten that there were girls starting at Heriot’s at the start of the following week. However, Andrew was no longer worried about talking to them or even sitting near them! Like computing he was going to have to consider friendships and girls in the first month of the term. He would be continuing in the CCF which was his main group activity. The key thing was to make this goal a priority. Don’t sacrifice either personal balance or friendship for study or work.

Money. This had been an easy update to consider through the spring. To say that the money was almost a burden was wrong. But Andrew had managed to save £1,500 that summer giving him £2,000 in total. And all this was sitting in a drawer in his bedroom. In 1979 he could have bought a two year old used car for that much. Now Andrew wouldn’t be legally allowed to drive it for another three years but hey he would have a car! He was not thinking about cars, he was thinking about school fees. The school would issue the fee notice on the first day back at school with the money due two weeks later. Last year the fees had been £285 a term and would probably be around £300 this year. Andrew could pay for the whole year himself. Hmmm. He needed to talk all this through with Leslie. As part of the original discussion they had talked about saving and investing, either stocks or property. Andrew was far too young to purchase either, not without parental consent at least. Double Hmmm. He had, through good fortune and hard work, managed to create a little nest egg, Andrew wanted to ensure that he didn’t waste it. The UK was running double digit inflation, he needed to do something other than leave it my underwear drawer. It felt odd to be troubled by having money.

Andrew enjoyed his second long lie in of the summer on the Saturday morning. After doing his exercises he wandered through for late breakfast, yawning even though he was just up. It was a nice change to laze around the house, listening to some music and relaxing. He met Leslie and they watched a second run of the latest Bond movie Moonraker. It was okay but not the best and not nearly as good as The Spy Who Loved Me. On the drive over to her parents Andrew talked to Leslie about the money. She was surprisingly decisive.

“Save the money Andrew. Remember the long term goal of making a difference, well that will take money, so save it. I think you should offer to pay one term of your school fees and see if your parents take you up on the offer. The rest you save. Think about all the work you did over the summer on the farm and with Dad to make that. In fact, Dad is always reading the financial papers so we should ask him tonight what he would recommend.”

The conversation with Mr. Campbell was very enlightening and deeply mystifying at the same time. He talked at length about the different investment options. He had saved significant money and most of it was invested in the stock market. Over the course of the next year when Andrew was at the Campbells on Sunday for dinner Brian would take the time and talk to him about money, saving, investing and the different options. Andrew and Leslie would sit and listen, often taking notes. Brian Campbell was a man Andrew owed a lot to. Brian started Andrew’s financial education as well as (over) paying him to work all summer.