Personal Experience Reflection: My First Job

Everyone’s first job is a special moment in your life to always remember. Here are some reasons for this: the experience makes a mark in your memory, it gives you practice for other jobs you might do, and it teaches you about the intrinsic value of money when you have to work for it. Of course we do jobs around the house when we are younger, living with our parents, like cleaning dishes, sweeping, and doing our laundry, but, working for other people kind of makes it feel different.

When I was about twelve years old, I wanted to buy music from my favorite bands to my phone, but I did not have any money. And, my parents are not the type of people to give me money, even for all the work I would do at home. I had to find work in order to get the music I wanted.

So, I asked around for someone who could give me work. At this time, I was living in Pleasant Valley, while there are quite a few people that live there I really didn’t know anyone. But, in my neighborhood, I had previously met a lot of people living there, especially a few elderly people, as they were sometimes more social, that needed help in their yards. Of course I went to the oldest person I knew in my neighborhood, Mrs. Jude. Mrs. Jude was over eighty years old, and so she couldn’t tend to her garden anymore. She had flowers, a grass lawn, and some weird plants I didn’t know. So, I knocked on her door, hoping she’ll hire me for work.

She answered that she did in fact need some help in her garden. She didn’t, however, discuss the amount of money I would get for the work. Probably the dementia kicking in.

My first job for her was to pull out the weeds that starting to overwhelm her garden. I got down on my knees and began to pull out weeds one by one in her front yard and backyard. After this tedious task, I mowed her lawn, the front and the back.

After I was done that was it for my first day, and it took me about two hours to do. I asked her much I would get paid, and she said, “I will give you $5 an hour. I don’t know much people are paid these days, anyways.” It was less than I thought I would get paid, but at least I had a job, and I didn’t know at the time how much people got paid either.

After getting that $10, I walked a few blocks home at the top of the hill. I went to my parents and handed them the $10 in exchange for me using their debit card to buy the music on my phone.

One of my favorite hobbies was to lay on my lawn with my earbuds between my ears and to listen to music while the sun baked me with it’s warm rays. This, and taking in the fresh air of the woods around me, was a bliss. That is why I worked: to make these moments even more enjoyable with music.

After many days of working for Mrs. Hudson, and buying more music and other items, I realised that I might wanted to save money for something even more interesting than music: an xbox 360, this is when they were still popular, so it was natural for me to want it. So, I started to work for multiple people in order to earn enough money.

When I gathered enough money to buy an xbox, spending dozens of hours working, I went out to a shop and bought a shiny black one, and a few games to play on it. However, after only a single day of playing on it, I realized I had made a mistake: the Xbox had gotten the red ring of death on it, ruining the console, I was mad, I felt like I wasted my money. I sweated in the hot sun for hours doing yard work to buy something that didn’t even work!. So, the next day, I returned it for a full refund. From then on, I only bought a few more songs with my money, and saved the rest into an account i still have.

I think everyone should get on one’s knees and work with their hands. I believe everyone should at least once work for a person that needs help. And I think everyone should feel the burning sun on their skin as they work. It seems these experiences harden our resolve, and make us more in touch with the things that matter. Besides this, a first job like this instills within you the value of money, as sweat turned into cash is something no one but bill gates can take away from you.