When It Goes Down, Learn From It
Life Lessons
09.12.2008
The extra semester was due to me double majoring to be more “workforce prepared.”
In the summer of my fourth year, I slogged through a job as a porter for a large department store chain. I needed to earn money to support my serious school habit. At four bucks an hour, I was socking it away by the change purse full.
As a porter, I did all sorts of interesting things. I unloaded trucks, cleaned spills, unloaded trucks, helped old people with their packages and unloaded trucks. When the summer heat really sweltered, I unloaded trucks.
One day I got a call to clean up a spill in the ladies’ dressing room. “Hmmm. Generally not a lot of sloshing around in there,” I thought. “What the hey, it’ll pass the time.” It turns out that someone had tried on clothes and left them discarded on the floor…topped with a fresh deuce. That’s right. Boom! Right there in the LADIES’ dressing room. Now, even if you’re more of a Sassy Jr. Miss than a Today’s Woman, that’s no way to accessorize.
When the summer ended, so did my stint as a porter. I happily returned to school with three life lessons forever fixed in my mind: Lift with the knees, steer clear of the ladies fitting room and never stop learning.
