I sit on the bus on my way to work at a car garage.  Going through the stoplights I start thinking about what could happen in the shop today.  I mean really anything could happen.  It probably won’t but the point is it could.  I get to work and I make the coffee.  Everyone else is doing equally as important things, checking in customers and starting car repairs.

Some days I get to run the shuttle and that’s fun because I get to meet a bunch of new people with stories and jobs.  I don’t really come across a lot of people with real jobs in my life so I like learning about all the different things I could do with my time from these seemingly put together people.

Sometimes a tech will ask for help and I’ll get to actually learn what on earth is happening under the hubcap or the hood or the muffler.  Sometimes it’s really disturbing to see the state of disrepair of some of the cars.  The first time I really looked at a set of brakes they were so worn I was surprised the owner was still alive.

I go get parts from the dealers and feel cool when I actually know what I’m talking about and am able to communicate exactly what the tech wants.  Sometimes that doesn’t work out and I have to go back and get another version that hopefully works so I don’t have to embarrass myself further.

When I have a couple of free minutes, I like to watch the people at the carwash that I can see out of the window in front of my desk.  After they come out they sometimes spend up to an hour polishing their cars.  Windex, rags and their determination is all that’s visible from my little window.

When I’m not doing any of that, I’m ordering parts for customers, chatting with the dealers, filing old and new documents and files and primping up the shop to keep it as pristine as these women strive for.

It’s a stressful and hard-working environment, but everyone here still keeps a good head and actually has fun at work.  I feel like my whole life everyone has been telling me to enjoy school while I can because work is horrible and bosses are mean and rude, but this garage has taught me that that does not have to be the reality.

Then I go home and watch everybody drive these crazy cars that probably have a million things wrong with them and come back the next day to watch these totally awesome people fix these contraptions.