When I was young I had such a hard time coming inside after a fun day of playing with my next door neighbor Devin. Gosh, we always had so much fun together. He was a year older than me but always wanted to play the same games I did.

I had gotten a huge play set from the Easter Bunny when I was in kindergarten, and it became the go to hangout spot for me and the neighbor boy. There were monkey bars on the left side and swings on the right. A green slide next to a rock wall on the front with a ladder in the back. There was a little perch above the swings that had a telescope pointing to the right and a picnic table underneath the set next to the monkey bars. Devin and I had quite the imagination, and together, it became the most lavish pirate ship anyone had ever seen.

Devin and I were a team of the coolest pirates on the deep blue sea. We always used the biggest stick we could find to be our swashbuckling swords and we would fish for the scary deep sea monsters (they were really just fallen leaves) and fight off the other loot stealing pirates (they didn’t even exist). One year, I was a pirate for Halloween and with my costume came a real pirate sword. This became the symbol of who was the lead pirate of the day. Devin and I never had any issues with sharing with each other and taking turns. 

Once and a while, one of us would have to scavenge out into the sea alone on a little tiny boat while the other stayed on lookout on the perch with the telescope. Whenever it was my turn to go out there, my heart would start racing while I wearily searched for dinner that night in the crashing waves. Suddenly, the most dreadful word would come from my matey. 

I panicked. Fighting against the waves as I frantically steered my little row boat back to the safety of my ship. I’d look back and scream as the shark inched closer. As I climbed up the rockwall back into the ship, I reached for Devins hand as he helped pull me back on deck.

Once I was safe, it was time to get back to work. I’d begin preparing the dinner I had caught. Seasoning the leaves with colorful chalk dust powder. We were not only just pirates on that ship! We also owned a special seasoning company. Scraping chalk on the chalkboards and collecting all the dust that fell into the little tray underneath. We filled old bubble tubes with loads of chalk dust. Each day that we played together we made new goals for how much seasoning we had to make. This was my first taste of the stress of having a job. 

Some days, Devin and I were so busy fighting off all the sharks and bad booty pirates that when my mom would call though the window that dinner would be ready in fifteen minutes we would look at each other with so much panic. We would scramble up the ladder and immediately start scribbling on the chalkboard trying to reach our business goal for the day, regretting all the fun we had. If we had just gotten this done earlier, we wouldn’t have to spend our last few minutes together in silence other than the screeching of the chalk. Most of the time we were able to reach our goal but on the few days we didn’t, we had to part ways feeling disappointed in ourselves because now we don’t get to have as much fun tomorrow because we have no seasoning to sell.

Crazy how we go from playing too much and not having time to work to working too much and not having time to play.

♥♥♥

Now that I’m older I have such a hard time dragging myself into work after having a long day at school. I never have the time to see my friends anymore without feeling like it’s a chore.

I got my first job when I was fifteen years old. I started working at the Bake Shoppe located in Coborn’s over the summer. I had a pretty fun time, but it was mostly just cleaning up after the morning crew and getting things ready for them to come in again the next day. I worked around four days a week for five hours which allowed me to have time to see my friends before and after work. 

Eventually I started meeting some of the people that were working in the front end, which includes cashiering and the service counter. I realized that they had more of a community up there. I quickly got jealous of how they had each other to talk to and they had more things to do. I asked the store director if I’d be able to transfer departments because I felt like I would do much better working with people and not just cleaning all the time.

Once I started working up front I was able to do so much more around the store. I had a whole lot of fun getting to work with more people than just myself and getting to work directly with the customers. Right away, I started to strive for more action. I wanted to start working at the gas station which was a part of the front-end department. All my work friends were already working at Little Dukes, and it is much more laid back. There is no manager breathing down your neck, and you get to work one on one with your coworker. Dukes has brought me closer to so many new people because there are more consistent customers that you really get to know. However, I gradually started advancing to training at the service counter. 

The service counter is much more work. You have to fix all the problems, communicate with the departments all around the store, and basically everything to connect the customers with the rest of the store. I love it. I enjoy a fast paced environment where there are tons of things going on. I was having so much fun circulating through all my positions now. From time to time, I’d still help out in the bake shoppe, I learned how to stock groceries and learned how to fix many of the machines. I became a super versatile employee very quickly.

I now have many extra tasks around the store that other people don’t do which is rewarding but also very draining. I have been asked to take over doing all of the employee boards like our information chalkboards and the celebration boards. I haven’t been able to work in time for me to do these things on top of my scheduled shifts at the service counter. This means that I’ve been having to add extra work on my days off in order for me to get these done.

Now, I am currently in the process of being promoted to a part time manager while still in school. This would be incredible because this has never been done at Coborn’s before, yet I’m scared that the position would suck the life out of me.

Lately, I’ve been so consumed with the repetition of school, work, school, work, school, work, over and over that seeing my friends and family has become another check box on my to do list. For months I haven’t had a single day where I have gotten to focus on myself. There is always something going on. I have been making so many friends this year that all want to spend time with me which is great and I love them, but I have started over scheduling my days to make quality time for all of them.

I usually only have Tuesdays and every other weekend to fit in time for everyone which isn’t enough. This leaves me with no time for myself other than late at night when all I want to do is sleep. This has turned into a hatred for work for taking up all of my time when I should still be playing with my friends because I’m still young.

My life has gone from too much play, to too much work in the matter of 18 years. How I wish I could go back to the stress of not making enough seasoning.