September 1, 2020
Here I am getting ready to start another boring and slow 3 to 8 shift at Stop n Shop. I punched in 5 mins early as usual and speed-walked my way over to the central desk to check where I’m going to be working today. Honestly felt my heart fall into a hole once again, I’m going to be a “Sanitizer” again today YAAA! I slowly walked over to the miniature cart supplied with a roll of trash bags, paper towels, one pen and a checklist of everything that must be done by the end of each hour, Ahh but wait we left one Important thing out, right we can’t forget the yellow safety jacket. I just hate jacket so much, makes me look like a traffic cone. I hated that thing.
I threw on the jacket and looked over the checklist to see what the other person before finished. The entire afternoon and evening sections were blank. I carried out my task, as usual, I started off by clearing the produce section filled with colorful fruits and vegetables, but it certainly didn’t smell like it. To the far right as you enter the store there is a Deli section where sandwiches, hot meals such as spicy, honey, boneless chicken, and roasted turkey, are put out but it didn’t smell like that either smelt like sewer, it was so bad. Other than the smell it looked pleasant.
As I was sanitizing the produce section, I felt a sudden wave of sadness you know the feeling of, why am I here? Is this what life has set out for me? Working minimum wage? I thought I applied to this part-time position as a cashier, but here I am cleaning for the past week now. I didn’t apply to be a cleaner yet here I am, sanitizing the whole dang store over and over till my shift is over. I can’t listen to music, I get in trouble when I socialize with my co-workers or a customer too long, only get a 15-minute break. I HATE IT, I DON’T WANT THIS, I WANT BETTER THAN THIS, I WANT MORE THAN THIS! I sucked it up and continue cleaning.
After the Produce section I went on to clean the meat section, which didn’t smell bad at all why does the meat section smell better than the produce section who knows but it just smells. The only problem I had with cleaning the meat section is how I had to bend over and wipe a 5-meter-long ledge while trying to keep the miniature cart close to me as possible. The same would apply to the dairy section which is 2 times the size of the meats. Just as I finished, I felt the same feeling of sadness return IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT FOR YOURSELF CLEANING BLOOD OFF MEAT LEDGES FOR $11 AN HOUR? I thought. “No, but this is my first actual job its better than nothing,” I said to myself knowing that I’m not happy here, “may I do want more…” I said.
I went over to the dairy section and started to wipe down the ledge doubting my choice on picking to work at Stop n Shop, to distract myself from through doubt I tried to focus on purely cleaning. But the dairy section Is just filthy, egg cartons left opened with multiple broken eggs all over the place, and to the left of it lies the yogurt area. With some the yogurt pack missing few yogurts, people are just worse than animals sometimes. Then of course as I said that an elderly lady with her cane on the side of her cart said, “Thank you dear so much for cleaning especially during times like this, you’re doing a great job keep it up.” I simply said “Of course it’s my job” smiled and nodded. Maybe this job isn’t all that bad, I am helping people. Sadly, deep down I felt dissatisfied, I HATE IT, I DON’T WANT THIS, I WANT BETTER THAN THIS, I WANT MORE THAN THIS!
I had enough, I was only 30 mins in my shift, and me fighting myself just going to make it pass even slower. I went along with my thoughts “what do I want?” I asked myself, even though it was an obvious answer to MONEY. “How much money?” I went on, with yet another obvious answer A LOT OF MONEY. I honestly thought I was losing it, I sounded like a child does not know what he wants for Christmas. I needed time to think, as a cleaner one advantage I got is leaving the store to clean the carts but instead I go around a corner and sit outside for like 15 minutes or so before going back in. Off I went to think things over.
I asked myself again what Is that I want? Got the same answer money. Then went on to the next question “How much money?” 1k A DAY I thought. “How?” I questioned myself by having more than just one income and NOT WORKING MINIMUM WAGE CLEANING A STORE, ANYTHING BUT THIS “makes a good point” I said. After that conversation with myself, I felt happier and uncertain about how I am going to make One-Thousand Dollars a day! “No way impossible I said I’m just an eight-teen year old haven’t finished college, how can I make One-Thousand Dollars a day?” My fifteen minutes are up I head back inside the store to clean but marked off saying finished sensitizing the carts.
Time went by way faster now that my mind is at peace. A few hours had passed and I am back at the produces section for the 4th time to clean, looks so beautiful with the floral display and little fruits in their packages, this would my favorite spot to clean if it weren’t for that horrid aroma if Skrek were to have a colon this would be it. “How could Stop n Shop sell things like this?” that’s when it hit me SELL THING! The more ideas began to flow in like types of things to sell, where to sell them, how much to sell them for. Time flowed quickly as well. It was 8 p.m. and time for me to leave, I clocked out and run home.
As soon as I got home, I had to tell my friends about this awesome idea I had, they didn’t take me seriously. So, I went to another friend that also worked at Stop n Shop with me and knows it’s torture like I do, his name is also Michael we call him Mike or Slow Wheeler, that’s a story for another time. Mike is usually optimistic about everything and it would be easy to notice when and if he is annoyed by someone or something. I called him up and the conversation went something like,
“Hey man, you free right now bro?”
Mike replied with “Ye, what’s up bro?”
I nervous because I wasn’t sure if he was going to take me seriously “I was wondering if you want to help me open up a business selling random stuff?” There was a pause for like three seconds, I continued, “Stop n Shop does not feel like it’s paying enough for the work we do. That’s why I want to open a business, nothing too crazy just some easy side income.”
He finally replied saying “You right they aren’t paying much, so when do we start? Is the weekend fine?”
“Yes, not a problem we can meet up this weekend to just brainstorm ideas,” I said.
“Okay, see you this weekend bro, let make some money!” sounding optimistic as he usually does.
I hung up and then felt a sudden rush of joy. “Yes! 1k a day!” I said aloud. Even though I am not making nearly as much now, I need to stay positive. And work hard towards what I want.
The weekend finally came around me and mike did not know where to start or what to even do. Mike brough all things that he no longer needed and could sell, Icarly DVDs, 8 Diary Wimpy Kids books, 2 physiology books, a Link action figure, a Link sword which looked extremely beat up, and few broken toys. Since I live right next to the park, we decided to setup up there. On the walk to the park, I saw a nerf gun in the recycling bin, I took it and wonder if I could sell it or not.
Although Mike was optimistic, he was uncomfortable when it comes to commutating with people outside out friend groups. I disliked talking to people as well, but to achieve my goal I must, so I had to step outside my comfort zone and make progress. We ended up selling most of the items we had that day things like psychology books and old television shows remained. As for the nerf gun, I also sold it to a customer somehow for $7. We head our separate satisfied with our achievements, THIS IS WHAT I WANTED, THIS IS WHAT I LOVE DOING, THIS IS FUN.
I came from being miserable at a job I didn’t like working in, now owning my very own business. All I had to do was do it. Only person stopping me was me, now I got that figured out nothing will get in my way for 1k a day.
My writers’ letter
I want to start by saying I’m not good at writing too much I would try to avoid it as much as possible, I was happy to hear that my peers and you enjoyed it so much.
The revisions that I did we solely based on my feedback that was given, such as “add more of a build-up in the introduction” to add I was clueless at first how I was going
to make that happen, but I remembered an introduction was meant to set the floor or base for the readers, I introduced my thoughts feeling, and expressions in the introduction.
“Minor Grammatical Error” All my life that was the issues that I can never run away from and lead me to dislike my writing, my grammar is wacky though I know that I
cannot completely remove all my grammatical error I tried by replacing words that don’t make any sense or just doesn’t sound right when reading aloud. “Don’t shy away from the description or going to details with my surroundings” Seem like many of my peers enjoyed my writing for my vivid descriptions of the environment, but I didn’t want to go over the limit of 1,500 words in which I ended up passing already, so I tried adding and removing a few words and phrases that wouldn’t disrupt the flow of the story much. “Add more about
my business” I’m not sure how to do that without adding or removing many words and phrase, and this is also my conclusion IM TERRIBLE AT ENDING STORIES ending stories isn’t
something I’m going at; I try to come full circle with the story but feels like I’m simply going in a line till I hit a wall. But I guess I didn’t do all that bad in this writing.
Questions that were asked were why did I all caps my thoughts? I guess I did it to show the anger and frustration the was built up over the time I was working a Stop n Shop.
Trust me when I say it isn’t a bad place at all just doesn’t suit me working there, also I applied to be a cashier not a cleaner all the time. So, this writing wasn’t to throw
any sort of shade toward Stop N Shop, I wrote this to show how determined I was to get what I wanted, I wanted to be my own boss of my own shop and not get paid minimum wage.
So that was what Me and my friend mike set out to do. I enjoyed this assignment because I got to put my thoughts and emotions on paper well computer, was fun. I was shocked that people actually liked my writing caught me off guard for a minute.