At the young age of sixteen, I started my first job.
Like most first jobs, it was a lot of work for little pay, but I was just thankful to have a job.
My father passed away when I was very young, and my mother never remarried. My mom worked a full-time job of her own to support the family, so I knew that if I wanted to go to college, I would have to pay for it all on my own. I started working a second job at the age of seventeen which was much easier than my first job, but was still a good amount of work. For my second job, I worked third shift at a local grocery store, and I was almost always placed in the freezer section to stock the frozen foods. Again, I was thankful for the job, but I hated it because it was so cold. I bought hand and feet warms for the days that I worked at the grocery store. It didn’t matter if it was in the middle of July or December, I always wore several layers to work because it was just so cold. I remember buying an electric heater for my bedroom at home. I would run the heater from the time I got home from work until I went to bed no matter what the temperature was outside. I used to ask my mom if she would turn the air conditioner off in the house a few hours before I got home so that I wouldn’t freeze when I got home. I’ve worked many job since that one, but I don’t think I’ve ever worked a colder job than that one.