I have worked for seven different companies in my life (not counting internships for which I was not paid).

Today I learned that yet another of my former employers has apparently closed, making it the third to do so.

My first job was as a house painter, working for my uncle during the summer before my junior year of high school. He moved onto other things shortly thereafter.

Once the school year started I began selling shoes at Galyan’s, a sporting goods store that was bought out by Dick’s in 2005. I worked there until the very end, though at that point I was only working during college breaks.

When I was at school, I started working for UWIRE, which apparently shut down last month. It was a college newspaper wire service that served as probably the greatest job I have ever had.

I began there as a story enterer — basically working 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. each morning copying and pasting articles from college newspaper websites into our newswire system. I’d assign them to different categories depending on their content, though I mainly handled sports for my first semester.

Even with the hours, it was awesome. I would make a half-awake walk from my dorm, across the railroad tracks, and through a completely deserted campus center to the 24-hour computer lab on the lower level. The only people I saw were those who had tried to cram in a paper at 4 a.m. and had fallen asleep in the lab, and the custodial staff who took that opportunity to vacuum the carpet.

Being in such a quiet environment so early in the day even led me to buy my iPod to help stay awake. I’m proud to report I still have it.

The next semester I moved up to an editor position. That meant taking the stories entered by folks in my former position, conforming the text to our style and giving each story an appropriate headline. Then I would send the story off into the world.

That was the truly great job. It meant working for 4-5 hours a day from my dorm room, which included easy access to the TV next to my monitor and the mini fridge a few feet away. My roommate, Jon, worked there too. We even had a sign on our door proclaiming our room as the UWIRE Selinsgrove Bureau.

I’m not sure our boss was aware that Jon and I knew each other, let alone worked four feet away. I think there were only four or five student editors, so it should have seemed odd that two of them were from the same tiny school in Pennsylvania.

But then again, our boss did live and work in California. Our only contact was through emails (that’s how we clocked in and out) or the occasional IM (for more pressing questions). She was also known to use the word “rad” a lot, which is always a great quality in a boss.

The other advantage of not working in an actual office — being able to spring from your desk to check out the amazing play in NHL2K2 out in the lounge that has the rest of your suitemates screaming.

There was also an arts section, whose editor frequently sent out opportunities to write original stories — mostly reviews of books or music. I wrote a review about a book by filmmaker Joe Berlinger, which recounted his experience making a documentary about Metallica. It was during this time I was making my own documentary about our college newspaper, and oddly picked up some perfectly timed insight about my own project.

When I went on to graduate school, I went back to being an enterer. After the fall semester I wasn’t able to fit it into my schedule anymore and had to bid farewell to UWIRE.

What a rad time.