I just gave myself a tour of my uncle’s factory and wow. I am impressed. When I first found out what he did for a living, I imagined a very boring, monotonous existence… much like the episode of the Simpsons when Bart’s class goes on a field trip to a box factory. It is anything but.

I saw large stacks of cardboard paper transformed into pretty, complete boxes. But each step requires different machinery. Big, hulking machines speedily print, score, cut, or fold. It’s so cool to watch something go in and watch it come out completely different.

Then there are jobs that require human touch to be finished. One such job had women from other Asian countries (Thais, Viets, Malaysians, Chinese) scoring and assembling boxes by hand. I guess they’re cheaper labor. Large stacks of finished boxes took up most of one side of the wall; there must’ve been over a thousand. This particular one was for a Ginseng health set and had a gold finish; I bet those boxes are expensive.

Eventually he wants me to go to trade shows in Las Vegas (yay!) and Chicago. After looking into it, I am pretty excited. Being able to travel for free and hobnob with large-scale businesses… Perhaps going into unrelated trade shows to hand out business cards and get some more clients for my unc… At a commission, of course :) It’d be pretty awesome if that was my job.

Of course, I still have a lot to learn about this business. I don’t know the specifications or logistics of anything yet. But I took a few related classes in college due to my advertising design degree. One class was all about printing, colors, offset machines, yadda yadda… The professor was talking about e-ink (as in what the Kindle uses) before the Kindle was even introduced. Saying how it’d change the world and we could eventually figure out how to put it on t-shirts so that we can change the message/designs on them at will. Awesome stuff.

I’m more excited about the possibilities of getting to travel for free to amazing places. There’s trade shows all over the world… If I’m lucky enough, maybe Japan, Thailand, and Amsterdam will be on my list eventually. Where are your top must-see travel destinations?