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Bennington Public School System

Bennington Public School System

When I was around sixteen years old I was spending the summer vacation in Bennington Arkansas with my grandparents. I wanted to get a job and start making money, but after applying to multiple positions available throughout town I was unsuccessful. Then one day my grandfather suggested we try Harrison's Grocery the grocery store right down the road, and so we went. When I asked about available positions they said only in the deli department and I was too young to work there. After I had been informed there weren't any options and before my grandfather and I left we happened to run into the head of the maintenance department for the Public School System, Mr. Thomas. My grandfather had taught him in school in their youth so they had a good relationship.

After the two of them greeted each other and smiled and laughed, my grandfather informed Mr. Thomas that we were trying to find me a job for the summer. Mr. Thomas immediately said "If he wants a job, I'll hire him." It is from this chance interaction I became employed, further emphasizing the saying my grandmother would repeat in regards to life. "It's not what you know, it's who you know."

I originally believed I was going to work on the moving crew given the school system got a large Grant requiring replacement of most furniture pieces and that's what Mr. Thomas had told my grandfather, but the morning of my first day I was told to be at Sunrow elementary at 7:00am I found out that that wasn't the case and instead I was a janitor. This was my first real job and I was very hardworking and didn't complain once at the tasks assigned to me. At the end of the day I had half an hour to forty-five minutes to vacuum 10-15 classrooms which the physical strain of doing so made me lose hearing in my right ear and I was dizzy and light headed to a degree. This started happening every day and I just dealt with it, my mind was much stronger than my body, but I was also young then. Thing is they just had too high expectations and rather than let them down I worked to meet those expectations which inadvertently affected my basic physical function and bodily control. After working at Sunrow for a month Mr. Thomas informed me that they could hire me on with the moving crew if I wanted a change from custodial work. The head custodian at Sunrow, Marven, vouched for me saying I was an excellent worker and so I was done with Sunrow and onto moving furniture with other high school kids.

Being part of the moving crew was a bit nerve-wracking on the first few days given I had no idea where to go and who to meet, they just said to arrive at the central location at 7:00am. When I arrived there were a couple kids already there in the breakroom. They kept to themselves, didn't greet me, but we were all sixteen so that wasn't a learned behavior yet, at least not of mine.

The first day I worked the boss Coach Matthew he turned to me in the van and said "Hey welcome to the moving crew, today you're going to get paid a lot of money doing absolutely nothing." He was right. The cafeteria department needed some woodwork done on their dock which required a higher set of skills than us kids so it was just Coach Matthew and coach Tyler spending hours fixing it, while myself and about 8 other kids sat and watched and hung out.

After the first day we got into the actually moving I enjoyed the job. Not because it helped get me into shape and add muscle, but it was fun socializing with the other teens and joking around with the Coaches. Coach Matthew especially. He was a biology teacher during the school year, drove the bus, and worked all summer with the maintenance department, he was a very good guy and I trusted him.

We became fairly good friends and ended on good terms given I was the hardest worker on the crew. A year or two later I contacted Coach Matthew to see about a job recommendation or using him as a reference and he agreed saying "Any way I can help you I will." Truly a good guy