Williamson 1

Brynn Williamson

Larson

English 2010

4 December 2019

Personal Prologue

The day of my 14th birthday, I got my first job. After school that day, my mom took me

to the custodian’s office at my middle school to start my first day of work as a sweeper. I was in

8th grade at Butler Middle School (See Figure 1), and working where I went to school seemed so

tedious. I worked there every day after school for almost 2 years scraping gum from under desks,

taking out the garbage, cleaning sinks, etc. At 14 years old, I was sure that getting this job meant

my parents were abandoning me and I was completely on my own for the rest of my life starting

right then and there. Of course this was not completely true, but no one could convince me

otherwise. At 15 years old, I quit my job as a sweeper and started my not so glamorous job at a

restaurant, where I worked for seven months until the restaurant closed down. The restaurant was

called Rustic Chicken, and working there consisted of taking orders, making food, cleaning out

grease traps, pulling chicken, which was ripping apart rotisserie chicken, separating all the bones

from the meat, and dealing with rude customers. I hated this job because I did not like my

managers or most of my coworkers. No matter how much I despised my coworkers and the work

I was doing, I didn’t quit. I never left a job until I already had another one. This leads to me

having never been unemployed since before I started my very first job.

By the time Rustic Chicken closed down, I was 16 years old, which made it easier for me

to find a job. I started working at Village Cleaners as a customer service representative. and have

been working there for about a year and a half. In September of this year, I put my two weeks
 Williamson 2

notice in at Village Cleaners, however I was offered a $1.50 raise to stay and first pick of hours,

so naturally, I took it.

(Figure 1)

Although the work I did was trying, working these jobs that I hated taught me to stick

with things and work hard, even if I have to do tasks I do not want to do. These experiences

taught me valuable lessons, such as how to work hard and how to work for what I want. Since I

was 14, I have had to pay for whatever I wanted by myself. This taught me the value of money,

which further taught me to save my money so I always had something to fall back on.

Money isn’t everything, but it definitely contributed to my work ethic. I work hard in

school in order to be successful so I can get a good job. My GPA has never dropped below a 3.8

by the time grades have been finalized in my high school career. Even in classes I found very

challenging, such as AP Language of Composition, which I took as a junior, I was able to

complete the class with a grade that I was happy with (See figure 2). I’m very proud of my work

ethic and the financial and academic success it has lead to.
 Williamson 3

(Figure 2)

My goal in life is to be financially secure so I never have to worry about money.

However, I don’t want to waste all my money on meaningless material things. When I have

money, I want to use it to help people. I plan on making donations to causes that help the planet

and people around the world, as well as donate my time to these same causes. I never knew how

important money was until I had to work for it, and I think that having to do this at a younger age

than most people taught me that nothing comes easy in life. If you want something, you have to

work for it, even if the job is something you hate, you must stick to it in order to achieve your

goals.