It was the summer before senior year, and my parents and I had discussed my getting a job. Me being the adventurous teenager that I was (sarcasm), wanted to have a bit of summer to sleep in before I put my nose to the grind. A bit of summer I did have, thanks to my mother. On the first Thursday of the break she told me that I started work at 8:00 AM on Monday, with her. See, my mom works in the Mental Health field. She coordinates a few different community mental health service centers spanning across a few counties in our area. I knew that I wouldn’t be having therapy sessions with people, but I still didn’t know what to expect from my first job being at Timber Hills.

We live about 40 minutes away from the office I would be working in, so I had to get up, get dressed, and get out the door by 7:20. In the summer. I remember mom driving and me being curled into a ball in the passenger seat, trying to sneak in a few Z’s before my day started. Eventually we had to get to the office, and i had to go inside. Then there came the meeting people part.

Mom introduced me to a lot of people my first fifteen minutes of being there. I, of course, couldn’t remember everyone’s names because I have the memory of Dori from Finding Nemo. I was already nervous and sleepy, and if I couldn’t keep up with names, how could I do anything else? I didn’t have too much time to fret, however, because my boss was telling me what my job was to be and was showing me where I would be doing it. A woman with short blonde hair lead me to the conference room, where boxes filled the floors and stacked against the walls with files that had yet to be alphabetized. That was to be my job, alphabetizing and filing. Yay.

My zombie self began to work, and within a week, I had all of the files put away. I had learned that my boss, the woman with short blonde hair, was Kayla and that she was absolutely hilarious. After a couple weeks, I learned almost everyone’s names, and pretended to already know them when I was absolutely clueless. It’s difficult, but it seems a lot nicer than asking someone’s name when you’ve talked to them every day for two weeks. After about three days of working, I seemed to get used to waking up early every day and going to bed early to ensure that I didn’t nap next to the Shred-It box in between tasks.

Kayla started giving me new things to do: Make copies, answer phones, scan these in. Eventually I learned enough of how things worked that I could offer to help with this or that and could solve problems on my own instead of asking someone else how to solve it. I moved from only answering phones to working the front desk, and from asking about prescriptions to substituting as the pharmacy technician. How did I do this with my previously named celebrity fish’s memory? Lists became my best friend, and so did labels. I learned to label and organize absolutely everything, and when I first learned how to do something, I typed and printed the steps of how it’s done. I keep a binder of those instructions so they may help people that learn those processes after me, and they have! It’s the only way I could survive.

Now, the Foote Street office is one of my favorite places to be. Yes, it’s still hard to get up in the mornings sometimes, but a cup of coffee in my hand gets me ready to go. I know everyone’s name here (after a year and a half, names are hard to forget), but working here has taught me a few things a little more important than just names. It taught me resilience, in the form of working despite any problems that may arise, how sick I am, or how tired I might be. It taught me the best way for me to be productive: lists and labels, and write everything down. I learned how to communicate with people, the nice and the not so nice ones. I’m a quick learner because of the fast pace of the office environment. I made friends with a lot of the staff. This job also teaches you to take initiative, and that just because it doesn’t say it’s in your job description doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. One position supports the goal of the entire agency. I'm just a file clerk, and I still feel like my job is important to the work that gets done through Timber Hills.

A first job will undoubtedly lead you to learning new skills. I'm just really glad my path lead me to Timber Hills. (I take pride in the fact that that rhymed).