English Description/Narration Essay Rough Draft

Pushing a green button doesn't sound like a lot of fun, does it? But for two years, that is exactly what I did for slightly better than minimal wage at Kinko's. I should be fair; there is more to the job than that. Sometimes I pushed a pink button, too. Oh, yes. I also did the usual cashiering and customer service that goes with any retail job. I probably would still be there with that green button under my finger tip if it hadn't been for that Wednesday night in early July of 2002.

For a small group of guys from around the area, Wednesday nights is Game Night. A night guys night out so to speak. Most of us come just as a distraction to get away from the day to day grind. Where we can bitch, wine and moan about everything in our lives: from home life to in-laws to work. We also find time to play either card or board games.

For some twist of fate, this night our conversation was focused heavily on our jobs. I had just gotten a whopping 24 cent raise; bring my hourly pay to $7.99. I joked that I was an outrage because it meant that I wasn't good enough to get that one extra cent to make it an even $8. Walt, the outspoken host of Game Night, had just been telling us about the latest on goings at his place of employment. He had just been promoted to Chief Pharmacist and was commenting on having to hire a replacement for a tech that had been there for several years.

“You bitch a lot about your job,” Walt blurted out at me while cutting the deck. “Why don’t you come to the pharmacy and work for me?”

I didn’t hesitate. “Pay me more than $8 an hour and you got yourself a deal,” I said with a laugh. That topic was dropped as the conversation shifted to the finer nuances of how a card should be played.

A few days later I received a call from Walt while at work. “Where you serious about wanting to work at the pharmacy?” I was shocked. I had thought that he was kidding. But why the hell not, right? I told him that I was and we set up a time and place to talk more about this business proposal: during my lunch break at 3pm at the Taco Bell next door.

Around 3:15 is when Walt finally showed up. And he went right into what I later found out to be is normal “pharmacy is hell, once you are in you are stuck for life, blah, blah, blah.” If you would take him for his word, you would think that working in a pharmacy would be pure hell. That is not entirely true, as I was later to find out. I got the news that I was practically hired as a part time technician to see if I really did like the job. The only thing I had left to do was to meet with the store manager for the standard interview and I was in.

Up until that time, I just pictured my job as something that pays the bills. Punch the clock, do my job, and go home. Out side of that, my job didn’t mean anything to me, and because of that, I really didn’t see my full potential. Most of the whining and moaning I was doing about my job was coming from a sense that I wasn’t going anywhere.

Now I have a totally different attitude about my work. Being a pharmacy technician is more than just a job. I know that it sounds somewhat like a cliché, but it is true. It gave me a view into a field that I normally would not have even known about. Now I am going back to school and even am considering going to a college of pharmacology after I get my biology degree. My life has literally turned around.

From pushing a green button and having virtually no responsibility to being partly responsible for filling patients’ prescriptions, being the in between for the pharmacy to the home office, and being the go-to guy for any technology problem , this job has been a big turning point in my life.

Pouring stuff from big bottles into little bottles is a lot better than pushing a green button. Right?

Student Success Reflective Journal Week 1 "Getting to Know You"

I really don’t remember that much from high school. I do remember that English was one of my weak points. I failed one semester and had to retake it. My strengths were in Science, Social Studies, and computer networking (I don’t remember what the class was called). My expectation for college is to give me the foundation I need to continue my education and excel in my career. I am hoping that this semester will help me get back in the “school mode,” as I have been out of any sort of formal education for the last six years. Being exposed to new people, new cultures and new ideas, I hope that my time here at ECC, and whatever school I go to afterwards, will help me to be more tolerant of different attitudes, beliefs and ideas. Not only am I hoping to grow academically, I am also hoping to grow as a person. This is also one of the differences in people that go directly into the workforce rather than continue their education. They lack the exposure to those new people, new cultures and new ideas. Most that go directly into the workforce has not only limited career advancement opportunities, but a limited outlook. They don’t know what else is out there.