When I was a little kid, I looked forward to summer because I could sleep late, play video games all day, and then enjoy neighborhood barbecues nearly every night. Then when I reached my teenage years, summer became the season for enterprising. I washed cars, mowed lawns, baby-sat the neighbors’ kids, and even walked neighborhood dogs to make extra cash that I could use during the school year. I knew if I wanted to date, I would need a car or else I risked looking like a total loser when my parents drove me over and chaperoned our entire evening.
On the year I turned 15, I knew I wanted to find a “real” job for the summer. Instead of doing errands for the neighbors and picking up $20 here and there, I wanted some consistent, backbreaking work to help me top off my life savings so I could get a car by my 16th birthday. I could practically feel the keys in my hand when I saw the “Help Wanted” sign hanging by the elevated boardwalk at the beach. Working at the pier sounded like a dream come true!
I immediately ducked inside and asked for an application. Mr. Murphy, who owned the place, turned out to be an old friend of my grandpa. When he saw my name and figured out who I was, he crumpled my application and tossed it over his shoulder. I felt my stomach sink and wondered if Grandpa had some old gambling debts or something to make this guy so mad. Then he started grinning from ear-to-ear and said, “You’re hired, kid!” Apparently, anyone related to my grandpa was bound to be a hard worker. So I went home and proudly announced to my parents that I would start my first full-time job the next morning.
Working at the pier turned out to be so much fun! I learned a lot about dock building from listening to Mr. Murphy talk about his side jobs building boat docks all over the coast. By the time July arrived, I had mastered selling snow cones and fishing licenses and was ready to move on to more responsibility. So Mr. Murphy worked on another custom boat dock, he left me in charge of running the pier for the rest of the summer.
Over the next month, I worked hard to make sure everything went perfectly at the pier. I sweet talked tourists, sold season passes to the pier, and even organized a local fishing tournament that drew in thousands. When things were slow on rainy days, I even worked to design a new dock accessory that I thought Mr. Murphy would appreciate. I built a beautiful cedar bench that doubled as a storage locker to house Mr. Murphy’s fishing tackle when he was out working on another dock.
When he returned at the beginning of August, he was stunned by all the changes. He loved the cedar bench I had built and decided to have me build one for every custom boat dock he installed. I was shocked when he offered to pay me a hefty fee for my carpentry work. Then when he took a look at the books and saw all the extra revenue we made during my fishing tournament, he kissed me square on the cheek. He wrote me a check that was more than enough to buy the car I wanted and begged me to stay on through the fall and work after school and weekends.
Surprisingly, my memories of that first summer job have nothing to do with getting money for my first car. Instead, I remember that as the summer I fell in love with the Atlantica Pier. You might be surprised to know that I still work there today. When Mr. Murphy died, he left the business to me. By that time, I had been managing it for about 10 years. When I started working here on that first summer, I discovered my purpose and I have never looked back.