When doing the Mind Maps I found it difficult to think of certain and specific things that I’m proud

of.
Sitting down and taking the time to really think about your accomplishments can take time and not
always be easy. I’m choosing to reflect on my personal achievements. Initially it was hard to think about
a personal achievement since I don’t participate in sports anymore, and I don’t really have any specific
achievements that actually mean something to me. My biggest achievement in my personal life would
have to be my job. I started working at A&W when I was in grade 10 and I’ve been there for just over
two years. At first I really really liked my job, and I found myself wanting to work longer when my shifts
were over. Overtime, the job got frustrating due to not getting paid enough for what I do, and I still
don’t. The things that have kept me here are the experiences I’ve had and the people I’ve met. In my job
we deal with a lot of rude customers and people who just don’t think about our well-being, and how
difficult the job is and can be. The workplace is basically split up into two sides. You either work in the
kitchen or you work up front, but you can also work both if you’re trained for it. I work at the front
which means I’m taking orders at drive through, inside orders, or I’m bagging the orders. Besides from
the actual work itself, this job is important to me because I’ve met some of my favourite friends here.
I’ve always valued my coworkers and it’s one of the main reasons why I’m still working there. I’ve only
ever had one problem with a co-worker over the two years span that I’ve been there, and that coworker
was only there for a couple months. I value my friendships a lot and when getting to work with my
friends it makes the job a lot easier and more fun. This job has also made me grow and mature
significantly. Before this job my parents would get me things here and there but obviously never
anything crazy expensive. I feel like nobody truly understands the value of money until you have a job
and have to work for it. Even though I understand the value of money I have still saved nothing and
decided to spend it all. It does make me a little frustrated looking back on how I didn’t save any money,
but it’s already spent so there’s not much I can do. But the most satisfactory I’ve gotten out of this job is
all the memories and experiences I’ve made with my coworkers. I can’t stress enough how well
everybody gets along with each other, there is times where people will get upset at each other but for
the most part we always get along and have a good time while we’re working. I have developed a
significant amount of skills from staying in this job for so long. Some of the skills would be patience,
multitasking, communication, perseverance, teamwork, self management, independence, problem
solving, initiative, organization. The most valuable skills I’ve learned would have to be patience,
perseverance, and independence. There are many times in the job where you’re dealing with
rude/annoying customers. When I first started working there it was harder to deal with them and
definitely upset me when there was conflict. Having patience and perseverance to work through those
problems have made a big difference for my whole job. I can usually turn the customer's attitude around
and get them to compromise a little more. One example I remember from dealing with the customer
was when I was training one of my coworkers, so they were taking orders slower. The customer started
rushing them, I then explained how their training and are going to take a little longer to take the order
and the customer understood and apologized. I also explained how in the future he should have more
patience with whoever is taking his order because I shouldn’t have to say something for you to be
understanding and patient in the first place. From this job I’ve gained a lot of independence, mostly
because I have my own money but also because I have to get myself to and from work. Some things I’ve
learned about myself are that I can persevere through almost any situation. I can’t count how many
times I’ve wanted to walk out during a shift and I’ve stayed because it’s better to work through it than
run away from it. I’ve also become stronger with taking initiative at work and at home. At work I always
have somethings in my head of what to do and what needs to get done. At home it’s now easier for me
to take the initiative to do the dishes or clean the kitchen or whatever needs to get done. Lastly, for
future connections it was hard to think about how this connects to my future. I don’t quite know what I
want to do in the future yet, I just know it’s going to be on the arts side. So the skills from this job that
would be useful in the future would be problem solving communication and teamwork because it
applies to almost everything in life. When moving forward in my future I’m going to be in post secondary
so it will be really important for me to communicate when I have questions and to work well with the
people around me since I won’t know them. Problem solving is useful in every situation in life and it's
something that happens all the time. I’m also grateful that I’ve gotten to train people because it
strengthens my skills on teaching others. Overall, I’m very grateful for the experiences and people I’ve
met while working here, and can’t wait to move on to another job where I can expand and improve on
my skills.