Carpe Diem, I'm Leaving
Hello World,
My name is Anh and I'm a small business owner of Phone Repair Spot in San Jose, California. I was born in Pennsylvania and grew up there all of my life. I rarely ever left the country or even the state. I never really traveled anywhere, but I always knew that I wanted to leave. I did many odd jobs growing up. You never know how hard it is to get a job. At least when you really needed one. I got my first job at Walgreen when I was 16. It felt great being able to make my own money and be independent. As some of us when we're young, we just wanted to have fun. That didn't last too long, especially when you want to spend what you earned.Eventually, I was back to having an allowance. It was such a bummer, but I was the only person to blame. Working so much didn't allow me to have the time to spend with friends and loved ones. Then again, not having a job made it hard to go out and spend time with friends. We usually always went out and threw whatever we had for partying and all. After high school ended, the friends we thought we all had. It's true, not all of them will be in your future life. It wasn't always because people grow apart. Some of them just never got to see a tomorrow, if you know what I mean. After high school ended that's when we really had to get ourselves pulled together. It was either be a bum, go to college, or enter the work force.
I gave it a good old college try. Only to realize that it just wasn't for me. So I gave it the 3rd option of entering the work force. You'd think it would be easy to get a job anywhere. Man, was I utterly wrong. After handing in my 108th job application, (I know it sounds exaggerated, but it's all true.) I lost hope in ever being anything other than a stay at home bum. I'm feeling down in the dumps, it's been 2 years now out of college. I called up my old high school friends for a drink and to catch up. Everyone was getting somewhere in life and man it made me feel left behind. Don't get me wrong, I was happy for them that they did themselves. That night was the night that changed it all for me. I met someone who was actually looking for someone to work at one of their gas stations that they managed. Sunoco, it's a company that I myself will never forget.
What I experienced in a minimum wage job is something I would wish for everyone to experience. If hating your job doesn't make you want to start a career. I don't know what else can drive you to be better. The commute to work for me was 76 miles there and back. When you have no other opportunities, you really have to "Carpe Diem" the hell out of this. I mean yeah, I hated the job and everything. I just know that being unemployed was not where I wanted to be. I worked myself to the ground and was eventually promoted a few times. I was making more money and life started to feel bearable. Then life kicks you down and they had to let me go. That feeling of hopelessness is such a tragedy. I am now back to where I fought so hard to get the hell out of. Last time it all felt like just a lucky opportunity.
Depression, that's a real thing and it's so hard to fight out of it. I gathered my stuff and my last paycheck and said bye to some friends. I went back home to my mum as a failure. She knew how hard it was on me, but she was great about it. Eventually I pulled myself out of it and got myself odd jobs. Whatever I could find on craigslist, some help at my mums friends house, gardening requests, being a driver for some famous monk that was visiting, working on a farm, and even those sweatshop factory jobs. It really was unstable for me then, but it all lead me back to Sunoco.
I was good at what I did there and I was tired of that sweatshop factory job, working from 9 pm to 6 am 5 days a week. It wasn't always guaranteed work because the slots filled up quick. I just remember walking out at 6 am on my birthday and just saying "I can't live like this, I'm 22 now.". I went home and spent the birthday alone and opening presents I got myself. Then the idea of just giving Sunoco another shot at a different branch. When the sweatshop job didn't have a slot for me to work. I went to Sunoco that week to request an application and just so happen to meet the manager of that location. He seemed impressed I knew as much as I did considering I was young and was a manager. He said to me he'll have a talk with his bosses because I worked for a franchisee Sunoco. Since it is corporate, their policies were strict and I would need to start from the bottom up again. I got a call back by the end of that week.
Work started that coming Monday and I had training to prepare for. On the first day of minimum wage pay again, I am to shadow the employees and learn from them. It really was the other way around though. I ended up having to teach them how to use the systems and getting past receipts for pumps. First day at work wasn't bad at all. I kept working and then got two more promotions in about a span of a month. I kept my work ethic going trying to keep getting further up in the ranks. I got my third promotion by 4 four months in. I'm now a senior shift leader, just below the assistant manager title. I was feeling pretty good about all of it. I'm now finally feeling that I'm getting back to where I was.
Now at six months into work and still no sign of a promotion in sight. Just hear talks about it, and I've been watching and learning from afar how it all works. All of a sudden a new employee shows up for the assistant manager job. I was tasked with training her, but let me tell you how furious I was. To have to start from the bottom up and now be tasked with training someone who knew absolutely nothing. I grit my teeth and did what I was needed to. I trained someone for the job I needed. That's when I made a call to my uncle who left for California a very long time ago. I explained the situation to him and asked if there was anything out there that I could do for work. After that phone call, I started preparing myself to move. I gave my 2 weeks notice to Sunoco, and I was packing and moving to California in one month.
It was the hardest thing I ever had to do. I left my girlfriend at the time, my friends, and all my family. The morning of the day I was leaving, I went to go find my dog. She had passed away, and I was devastated. I left Philadelphia to the airport with nothing, but sadness everywhere. I finally reached my terminal and I gathered my belongings. Hugged everyone tightly and turned around to head for a possibly better tomorrow. I couldn't sleep at all on my flight there. Too many things were going on in my mind, but I finally landed in San Francisco, California with no sleep. My lead here was to learn how to do cell phone repair. I found it funny because I had an iPhone that I broken once. I got it repaired and sold it for more than what I bought it for. I slept on the floor of my uncle's place for the first month with no rent or pay. I went to work 6 days a week to watch his technician and learn how to quote repairs. I lived off of one credit card to another credit card in those times.
I appreciate all the help he had given me because of him I was able to start a stable profession. I never really appreciated how much of what I do until only recently. I'll fast forward a bit to 2015 is when I first opened Phone Repair Spot. With two years of experience I was ready to take on the world! This is the history of how I packed up my entire life in two boxes and shipped it across the country. You never really know where life takes you. I'm glad I left, but I still miss my family and friends. I have to thank everyone in my life that has helped me get here to where I am. I couldn't of gotten here all on my own. I want to personally thank all of you for reading this.
Please come visit us anytime to get a free quote on your phone repair. I work here 6 days a week. 10 am to 7 pm Monday - Fridays. Saturday we are open from 11 am to 5 pm. Sundays we are closed.
Phone Repair Spot
(408) 497-1503
anh@phonerepairspots.com
1460 Montague Expressway Suite A, San Jose CA 95131, USA
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