Career Day

I was asked to speak at a local elementary school for their career day. This was not something I really wanted to do. The several days leading up to it I was wondering how I could fill fifteen to twenty minutes of time. I was volunteered to speak to three groups of fourth graders. One of my goals was to emphasize the importance of school to them. This was the direction given by the school counselor.

As I drove to the school on career day, I thought about what I might say. That's right, I still didn't know what I was going to do. I signed in at the school office. I was early, so I found a quiet bench and started making notes. A volunteer came and got me within five minutes and took me to the class.

I allowed the kids to ask questions as we went. This helped with time, because hands were constantly being raised. After I described looking for high school graduates in applications, one boy asked me if I get to fire people. He pointed his finger and mimicked Donald Trump. "Sometimes we have to do that", I told him.

In each of the three groups, a girl raised her hand and asked if women work at my job. "Of course! We need cashiers." I told her.

Ok, I didn't really tell her that.

Some questions were personal questions like who is my favorite football team and what are my kids' names. I decided to be honest with all my answers and didn't hold back anything. Some of the questions were work related. This was my favorite:
"Do you cuss at people?" a boy sitting in the back asked me.

Keep it honest, I thought to myself. "Yeah, I do sometimes. But I try really hard not to." I think I caught the teacher to my side put her head on her desk as I answered his question.

After I completed my work, they gave me a small gift for coming. I got a key chain, a school pen, a school calendar magnet, a nice candle in a jar, and a great thank you card. I gave the candle to Cari. She likes to smell those kind of things more than I do.