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I remember my first job. I was 12 years old and delivered the Shopping
News around my area in Belmont. My mom had to have her name on the
checks because I wasn't old enough. She still delivers them and it's still in
the same area but now the checks only go to her.
During those same years, I had a summer job at Golden Harvest which was
a corn research facility outside of Platteville. We would get up really early
in the cold morning while the dew was still on the corn stalks and either detassel
the corn or shoot and bag, which is like pollinating the corn. By midmorning
our sweatshirts and sweat pants would line the edge of the corn
stalk rows near the road. Driving by, you would almost think there were
naked people streaking through the corn.
I stuck with the corn and took another detasseling job for North Gro/Gro
Alliance (it was in between switching names at the time). Now I am no tall
person (I can be 5'2" on a good day or 5'7" on days I wear my heels) and
these stalks were not small either. I had to learn to adapt to bending the stalks
slightly so I could detassel them without breaking the stalk. After our summer
session ended, I was asked to stay on because they thought I was a hard
worker.
After that I worked as a housekeeper for the hotel in Belmont for 2 1/2
years. It went through several different names but when I was there it was
the AmericaInn. That was some really tough work but I learned a lot about
cleanliness of hotels. If you think about it, that's actually really gross.
From there I worked at a sports store in Platteville that went out of business
and then going to college worked on campus there. I transferred colleges
and then worked retail and worked my way up to supervisor at Younkers in
Dubuque. Then again worked at the Shopping News in Platteville but instead
of delivering I helped fill the paper with all the information.
All these jobs were super odd jobs. Most of them I got on my own but a
few I had help from my parents knowing people. But I feel that working at
a young age, it instilled in me a sense of having a good work ethic. All my
jobs helped me with my public speaking and being able to be flexible in different
situations (figuratively and literally speaking). Before I went to college,
all those jobs I did while in two different sports and several other
different school activities.
I loved having a job so I didn't always have to ask my parents for money
for the movies or money for shopping. I was able to work up enough money
to go on a trip to Greece with different people in my community and in my
school. I am already thinking of what type of job my child can have when
they are young so they can have that same dedication to their work, learn
different skills and grow up to be a well-rounded person. I am so happy I
have the job I have. It took a while for me to finally get to a job that had
anything to do with my college major (BA in Professional Writing) but I
worked up to it.