My purpose in work is to make a better life for myself than how I lived as a child. The second reason is never struggle in life. This is the reason I went to college. The last reason is to take care of my parents and family.
What motivates me is the future. Making a happy and successful life is what keeps me moving every day. The possibility of making a family and getting married is another motivator as well. The last thing that motivates me is my niece. I want her to be able to see and enjoy the world. I don’t want her to have to struggle or have to face the hardships in life.
Why I work impacts the way that I think about what job I’m going to get. It makes me think about the money, location, and why I am working said job. Keeps my mind focused on what I need to do versus what I want to do.
I worked at Busch Gardens and the bowling alley in my hometown. Getting to help people and being stressed out in those jobs taught me that even if you don’t want to do something you need to be professional and do what is expected of you. I used to help coach and it was the only time that I felt important to someone. It made me feel needed.
Coaching can help me with handling people when everyone is stressed and focused. Teaching has helped me understand children and how their brains work. Working at Busch Gardens and Bowlero helped with my communication skills.
What I enjoyed about working was teaching. Getting to explain tasks and helping children figure out how it worked is worth it. The second thing I enjoyed was learning. I got to learn how to do new things that I had never done before. Coaching was the last thing I enjoyed about working because I got to teach people things that I learned. They actually listened and wanted to learn which was a nice feeling.
What I did not enjoy about working was the silence that would happen when people did not understand a task or didn’t want to be there. The second thing I did not like was the busy work. I don’t like to do work that has no purpose or is not important to the company. The last thing I disliked was spreadsheets. Excel is my mortal enemy.
The soft skills that I possess are being loyal, hardworking, responsible, talkative, teamwork, and critical thinking.
The hard skills are copywriting, Machine Learning, and social science.
I have good people skills. It takes me a little to understand some social cues. However, I am good at understanding people’s emotions and talking them through stressful times. I can talk to and meet anyone. I love to meet new people.
The person with the coolest job that I have ever met is Kyle Busch. He is a NASCAR driver. I think this is the coolest job because they get to race cars all day. Their whole focus is on the car. How to drive fast, what makes the car lighter, and how to be a more effective driver. No matter how good someone is they can always lose. So Kyle has to improve every year. This connects to my job because I wanna be the best version of myself I can be.
Critical Thinking – Head Ra, I used critical thinking when making schedules and helping solve issues that arise on off-campus living.
Professionalism – Fraternity, I demonstrated professionalism when I went through my process and at times needed to ask the correct way when in certain social situations.
Communication -Student, I demonstrate communication by leading in my classes when the teacher makes us have either class discussions or small group discussions.
Teamwork – Coaching, I demonstrate teamwork when I help my father coach my high school wrestling team. I did planning, practice, and people skills in those positions.
Lee Bidwell, Professor of Sociology, bidwelllm@longwood.edu
JoEllen Pederson, Professor of Sociology, pedersonjg@longwood.edu