Blog #5 - Final Draft

“Wayward”

Matt Caldwell

English 4, Bell 7

Ms. Wilson

Monday, November 7, 2016

Academic Honesty Statement: I have read and understand the sections in the Student Handbook regarding Mason High School's Honesty/Cheating Policy. By affixing this statement to the title page of my paper, I am certifying that I have not cheated or plagiarized in the process of completing this assignment. If it is found that cheating and/or plagiarism did take place in the writing of this paper, I understand the possible consequences of the act, which could include a "0" on the paper, as well as an "F" as a final grade in the course.

WAYWARD

       I hastily glanced down at my left wrist, only to see the mocking ghost of my watch, a faint watch-shaped sun tan. I forgot my watch again! The red light finally turned green and after what seemed to be an eternity I turned into King’s Island’s employee parking lot. I rushed up to tower’s phone and clocked in. The phone sarcastically spat nine twenty-two. I was late again. If I keep this up I’ll be out of a job. Edie wasn’t too happy seeing me late again. I still hadn’t fully realized that my summers will soon no longer be care free paradise.           

            I was sent down to carousel for the 4 hour opening rotation, perhaps as a punishment. Hi welcome to the 1926 Grand Carousel! I felt like an overheated machine repeating myself every cycle. When I first applied for my job I was meticulous, genuine, human, but recently the job seemed to be slowly sucking the life out of me, consuming my spirit.  Forty five to fifty five hours of work every single week, day in, day out. Rinse and repeat. Perhaps I should’ve just stopped picking up shifts, I didn’t really need the money. I was slacking, and my supervisors weren’t too happy about it, and Edie made sure to remind me during our closing powwow.

“Please, please, please, make sure you guys are showing up for your shifts on time. We don’t want to have to call staffing again” she squelched, giving me a sharp glance.

 I looked down and reassured myself, justifying the fact that I was late by telling myself working three swings in a row was not easy. I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow, I told myself, and clocked out and went home to get some sleep.

~

            Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. I slapped my alarm clock and scrambled out of bed. I had a thirteen hour shift ahead of me. Recently I had been thinking about calling in, or even quitting, because I didn’t think I could handle the hours. But is that what my parents would want? Would they still brand the same proud smile when I get home from work? And more importantly am I the type of person who just gives up when things aren’t fun or easy? I didn’t know. It’s too early for this. I thought, and went back to putting on my stained uniform, that I had forgotten to put in the laundry last night. At eight forty five I turned my car on and started to back out. Wait… my watch. I paraded a stupid grin on my face and ran back inside. You’re not escaping me today watch! Hopefully today I’ll actually know when to come back from break.

            I pulled into work at 9:07, eight minutes early. A first! I thought sarcastically. My cheerful spirit quickly died down when I realized how long my shift was. It was time to rinse and repeat. Time to remind myself why minimum wage has turned me into a democrat. I opened the phone to clock in. 8-4-6-3-1-9-9-0-1-7-1-5-5-0-4-1. Your clock in time is 9:14. At least I got to work on time. When I got to tower there was a new employee. Great. Now we have to deal rewrite rotations with a new guy who isn’t trained anywhere.

            “Matt, go ahead and train him at base and plat” Edie said.

            “Yeah sure, papers are in the closet right?”

            Edie quickly swiveled around “Of course” she said, staring at me blankly.

            “Alright what’s your name?” I said in the most genuine voice I could muster.

            “Sean” he said quietly.

            “Nice to meet you man, follow me”

            We took the south elevator up to the south plat because there was an 80% chance of rain.

            “Okay so I’m going to go ahead and show you the ropes on plat, it’s pretty simple, just make sure to pay attention because I’m going to quiz you afterwards alright?” I said while walking backwards off the elevator. Sean slowly stepped out onto the plat, while wind blew his hair back.

            “Oh come on, you can’t be afraid of heights” I said casually.

            “We’ll I didn’t think I was until I stepped off the elevator”

            I went back to my usual mundane self and went on about how safety is our number one priority at King’s Island in a monotonous tone. We got done with training about ten minutes before open.

            “Well, uh, I think you’re good! Welcome to the tower crew and good luck! You’ll be up here for about 2 hours before we rotate, and then I’ll train you down at base”

            “Ok see ya” He said.

            Now time to grind the next 4 hours at carousel. As I headed down to carousel I could already hear its horrible music on repeat. Every. Single. Day.

            Almost two hours of nothing had passed, and honestly if someone asked me how I pass so much time working I couldn’t tell them, but instead of continuing on with my day to day work something happened that day – a small child squeezed through the gate and ran after his ball which had rolled under the carousel’s turn table. I relapsed out of my usual day dreaming after catching a glimpse of him out of the corner of my peripheral vision. He tried to crawl under the turntable which was being rotated by a 4 ton engine, which would’ve happily kept on chugging even if someone were to be crushed and rolled under it. I slammed on the E-Stop and the carousel came to a fast and jolting stop. I ran over and helped Halen, who was working exit box at the time return the child to his frantic parents.

            “Should we call the area-soups?” Halen said, still panting from excitement.

            “Yeah probably, we are supposed to document these sort of things” I said.

            I rushed back to drive box and sat attentively as Halen called 5920-33 and asked for East Pie’s Area Soup. As we waited for Ashley, our area soup to arrive I realized the awe of not only being responsible for the safety of thousands of riders each day, but training others to be the guardians of countless guests, it may be the carousel, but it was still a scary thought, especially because incidents are bound to happen if we aren’t careful, and just last year someone was killed in our sister park Cedar Point a ride operator dispatched Raptor’s train without scanning the lockout zones first. I sat for a while and realized how much responsibility I am taking on, next year I’ll be living on my own, and making my own meals. It was time to apply myself, whether it be at home or at work.