Everyone has that one job in high school that they just hate;  I experienced this my senior year summer before college.  After countless rejections from jobs I would consider as normal for a HS graduate, I decided to go to a temp agency.  They brought me in for an interview and set me up with a job in a factory a week after the initial interview.  At first I wasn’t sure what to expect but after hearing the hours, 4 am to 4:30 pm I knew this was going to be a summer long struggle.  But I made it through the summer and in the process of doing so, I learned many valuable lessons to carry on through life.  Like the old saying goes “nothing can ever be all bad” is a very true statement.  

Waking up that first morning to go to work was tough.  The only other job I had worked was lifeguarding where I didn’t have to be up until 10 am.  To say the least I wasn’t really ready for this challenge,  although sometimes in life you just have to suck it up and get the job done.  Showing up for work that day was interesting because everyone there was either a HS drop out or a HS graduate, and no one had any college experience.  Which brings me to the first lesson I learned; if I wanted a job I could actually say I enjoyed, college was the answer.  This does not apply to everyone but I was not going to be content making $11 an hour.  I wanted a sports car and a nice house, not an apartment and a beater.  I came home after that first day of work and instantly fell asleep on the couch.  When I woke up the decision had been made to call the temp agency and ask for a different job; but right then my dad walked in and said he was proud of me.  At that moment I knew that I couldn’t quit.  He said things would get better and that in the end I would feel a sense of satisfaction that one rarely feels.  He was right.  

My job consisted of basically general labor, which included breaking down pallets with a jackhammer and loading boxes into a machine to be glued and sent to various companies such as Reeser’s, ATO Ammunition and Tree Top.  Believe me you could definitely work up a sweat doing this job.  This is where I learned my second lesson, not to take things for granted.  Go to the grocery store and everything comes in a box.  Very few people realize that people make their living making the boxes for your cereal or ready to eat mashed potatoes.  At one point I realized that I was basically making trash, people rip open the box and throw it away as soon as they get home.  Every time I see something that comes in a box I now realize that someone is working hard to make a living for their family making that box.  Appreciate the little things in life and be glad you are not the one making all of those TV dinner boxes.