It was summer 1982 and I got a job working at the Jafra Cosmetics and Perfume factory in Westlake, California. I thought, how hard can it be to work on a production line?! I'm smart and athletic...outta my way!!
I was put on the line where the spray tops are put on the perfume bottles. This is done buy hand...seriously...this skill is not in my wheelhouse. I started by watching this woman pop these tops on super fast...boink, boink, boink. Then travel to the end where another lady puts them in a box.
I've got this! No problem I am thinking. This is not like on I love Lucy where you can eat the chocolate. I do believe this job gave me my first panic attack ever. I lasted exactly 4 hours.
While I was eating lunch with my coworkers, they were telling me how they had been doing this same job for 5 to 10 years. I went to the manager and said this is not for me. I finished out the summer in the shipping department filling orders.
I worked my way through school, while raising a family and it took until 2000 to finish but I did it. Today I am finishing up my last two classes to sit for the CPA exam.
Thank you Jafra for lighting my path.
No comments:
Post a Comment