My First Full Time Job

I remember it as if it were yesterday. It was a beautiful Saturday morning during the month of June in 2009. As I lay in bed half asleep, I received a call from an un familiar phone number. Still feeling somewhat sleepy, I answered the call with a groggy voice. To my surprise, I was greeted by the sweet voice of a lady at the other end of the line. After confirming my identity she offered me a full time job at Harbor Freight Tools, starting the following week on Monday. Almost instantly I awoke to my five senses, and accepted the position. After hanging up I laid in bed fully awake from the call, and I remember thinking to myself, “what a great way to start my Saturday morning”.

            I had been waiting for that call for quite some time, and after receiving it, I was stoked. I was only 18 years old, and at the time had only worked at a few part time jobs in retail; however, that month of June I began working at my first full time job. I was ready to make the transition to a full time job. I felt like I finally had a real job, and more importantly I was on my way to becoming a man.

            Monday came around and I was expected to be at work at 6:00 a.m. for my training. I made sure I was extra early for my first day on the job. As I walked into the noisy, box filled warehouse, my watch read 5:50 a.m. and was quickly greeted by the lady whom I had spoken with on the phone. As we walked through the cold warehouse, she led the way. All I could think about was how closely the warehouse resembled Home Depot with its long, four story high, orange aisles. As we reached the corner of the warehouse she began to explain my job duties. I was responsible for only one aisle in the huge warehouse. I would walk down my aisle and paste a label on any box ordered from my aisle. Then, I would take that same box or boxes to the shipping dock, and repeat the process all day long. My job duties seemed easy enough, and they seemed like something I would grow to like fairly quickly.

            Soon I became accustomed to my daily schedule. I would work during the day , and attend a few classes during the evening. At this point in time everything seemed great. However, as the weeks passed by, my job suddenly required me to work a lot of mandatory overtime; consequently, I was forced to drop my evening classes. I completely stopped going to school. A couple of days after I had dropped my classes, I was called up to the main office by the company manager. He wanted to speak with me in private.

            As I walked into the cold and poorly lit office, the noise of the warehouse gradually began to fade away behind me as the door was swung shut. The manager then greeted me with a firm hand shake. He then took a seat in his large leather chair. As he sat behind his wooden desk, his eyes looked deep into mine. He then began to speak and firmly said, “there’s been some changes around the warehouse, and next week you will begin working the night shift”. I couldn’t believe what I had heard. After leaving his office I felt frustrated, since I had no control over his decision. I was going to have to switch shifts if I wanted to keep my job.

            As the months rolled by one after the other, I began to question whether my job was worth putting my education on hold. On one hand I enjoyed having the extra money I had, since I didn’t have many bills to pay; however, on the other hand I knew my education was worth more than the extra money I had to myself. After taking some time to think about the situation deeply, it became clear to me. I simply had no future working there. I was working at a dead end job, earning a little over minimum wage, with no control over my working schedule. It was then when I realized if I didn’t invest in my education, I would be stuck working at similar jobs for the rest of my life. I was sure that I didn’t want for my future, I wanted to have control over my working schedule, and I needed to do something about it. I had to go back to college and finish my education while I still had the opportunity.

            Finally after working at Harbor Freight Tools for a full year, the month of June came around again, and I had made a decision. It was half ways through the month as I walked through the warehouse with casual clothes on.  I made my way to the manager’s office. When I reached the manager’s office I was sure about what I was going to do. I walked in, took a seat in front of the manager and simply told him “I quit”. I told him I had my own reasons, and my priorities had shifted. I thanked him for the opportunity given to me to work at the warehouse, and he thanked me for my time. As I walked out of the warehouse for the last time that day, I was happy with the decision I had made. I was ready to pursue my education once again and nothing could get in my way. Furthermore, I was in control of setting my own schedule once again and wouldn’t let anything get in the way of my education again. The very next semester I signed up for school again, and started attending college part time. My first full time job served as an experience to help me realize what I really wanted to do with my life, and that was pursue an education, and transfer to a California State University with the intentions of majoring in agricultural engineering.