- in fifth grade, i wanted a paper route, but instead my brother gave me a job walking the neighbour's dog. he was a sweet old dog with a bit of a wheeze when he ran. we would walk for four blocks and he'd be done
- i started babysitting in grade eight, for a next door neighbour whose kid was in third grade. she was a nice kid, but i let her stay up past her bedtime and her parents never invited me back
- i watched two kids every monday night for two hours while their parents were at a yoga class. they almost always slept the entire time. once, one woke up and i read him stories until he fell asleep again.
- i babysit those same kids now every few weeks. we watch a movie and run around the house and dance and play hide-and-seek.
- i applied for a job with the city the summer i turned sixteen because i was too young to be a lifeguard but too old to sit at home for two months. i spent the summer in the sun, measuring chlorine levels and having waterfights with my coworkers. at the end of the summer, i got a drawing from one of the kids with a wobbly "love" in the corner.
- this past summer i was a lifeguard and swim instructor at my school pool. the hours were awful, but it was an amazing job. on my birthday, my supervisor bought me a cake, and we made fun of our irritating replacement coworker.
- i bike to a condo building nearby four times a week and teach a few kids to swim in their saltwater pool. they lend me their hairdryers, and i'm reminded that just because someone's wealthy doesn't mean they can't share it with the rest of us.
- i teach swimming lessons and guard at 5:30 am at the university pool and the kids i teach are fantastically into swimming lessons and i have been able to help them so much. the other day my adult student jumped into deep water and treaded water for a minute, and i was so proud.
- i work at the grocery store as well, and i sing along to songs and make batches of 60 grownup lunchables and love my life. i got an entire loaf of expired bread for free from it the other day.
- i work back home as a lifeguard for two summers past now and k.q. has been my coworker since the beginning but i have fallen in love with the place, with the group of people i met there, with the patrons and the staff and the way the sun feels on my skin, and the dumb dirty jokes the boys tell and the way it feels to love a place so intensely.
mar 24 2013 ∞
jan 8 2024 +
