When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? Kids have a lot of the same answers. Firefighter, astronaut, teacher, button maker, etc. I think when kids are looking for a career, they see the tip of the iceberg. They see that man on the moon, or someone saving a cat from a tree, or someone making buttons. What they don't see is all the extra hard work those careers entail. Maybe their dreams get squashed when they see all the hard work that goes with becoming an astronaut. Or maybe they realize that teachers just don't make a lot of money. Are we discouraging the future button makers of America?
When I was in first grade, my teacher handed out a blank piece of paper and asked the class to draw what we wanted to be when we were to get older. I knew exactly what I wanted to draw; A garbage man. And no, not just for the fancy orange jumpsuit, but because they got to jump on the back of the truck WHILE IT WAS STILL MOVING!
These dirty daredevils were my heroes. These guys actually got paid to ride on the back of the truck. My dad had always told me that it was illegal to ride in the back of the truck. No, not to these guys. Laws do not apply to them. What a dream!
It didn't take me long to realize being a garbage man wasn't the most ideal of careers. For starters, I hated taking out the trash at home. But the real deal breaker was when my older sister let me in on a secret; Garbage men work everyday, not just Monday and Thursday. They even work on Christmas and Thanksgiving.
Talk about heart break city. My dreams were squashed. You ever go to the deli for salami and you show up and they say "we only have hard salami, no more dry salami". That's how I felt.
Crushed.
