Before I came to Seminary: A Humble Job

Wrapping up my college years before I came to seminary:


30 hours a week. More than part time, but less than full time. That's the logic I used at the time. 30 hours at Giant grocery store each and every week. I must say, however, I am very grateful to have had that job. First and foremost, I was pretty darn good at it. I worked in the grocery department, and I seemed to have had a knack for all of the responsibilities. Time usually flew by while I was working because I enjoyed my job. The people there were wonderful, my bosses were fair, and the job itself was very hands on! 30 hours may not have been the most ideal situation on top of my work at the clinic, school, and time spent at church, but once I got into a routine--it worked out just fine.


Friday nights? Ah man! I worked every Friday night (with very few exceptions) all throughout college. We started price changes on Fridays, so we needed two people to work those nights. Fortunately, I was always with another college-aged, interesting person! Unfortunately, this means that I missed a lot of fun events on Friday nights. This is usually when my friends would go out on the town, or go out to eat, or go to the mall, or do something fun. I had my own routine, though--after work: Chinese food! Every Friday.

Rough Sundays. In retrospect, I am a little bit crazy. You see, Giant pays time and a half on Sundays, so I took advantage of this by working on Sundays. But, the thing is... church is on Sundays. So, I used to work really early Sunday morning or overnight Saturday night, so that I could get time and a half AND not miss any church. This usually took the form of my being awake for several hours before going to the 8am service, then to 9am Sunday school, then to the 10:30am service, then to noon breakfast with my roommates, then afternoon nap from 1-4:30pm, then back to the church, then 6pm Contemporary service, then 7pm youth group, then back home around 9pm to fall asleep almost immediately. I really like routines, so this worked well. Every Sunday.


Giant friends! One of the great things about Giant is all of the friends I made while working there. First and foremost, there are many college students who work there that I would not have otherwise met. WCU is a relatively big school (14,000 students), so I met a lot of people outside my major and outside my grade. I was also able to make friends with many of the full-timers--cover a shift once in awhile and bring cookies at Christmas time and you are golden! I got to know a number of people very well because my job was more of a team effort kind of thing, and when you work together with certain people for 30 hours a week, you get to know them pretty well. Finally, I met a lot of really awesome people who didn't work there, but shopped there. I am not the only one in this world that likes routine. Many a customer would show up at very particular times just like clockwork, and when you remember someone's name, they really appreciate it! Well anyway, I made a lot of wonderful friends that I still keep in touch with to this day, and for this I am grateful.

How this helps: Building routine, team-work & communication, networking.

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