I am officially hooked on Storyworth! It was a birthday gift from my husband. Here is how it works. You get an email every Monday with a writing prompt selected by the person gifting you. Respond to the email each week, and at the end of the year, all the writings are made into a book. My first writing prompt: How did you get your first job? Here is my response to Storyworth. What great memories!
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What a great first prompt, and what an amazing gift from my super sweet husband!
I dug around some old photo albums this afternoon to confirm the dates and learned that I started my first job on April 11, 1988. Note: my mom kept EVERYTHING when we were growing up, so what I found was a note from my first boss Susan congratulating me on a great job for my first week. My mom even noted my initial pay was $3.75/hr and also noted my promotion to $4/hr in September of 1988. Here is what I remember about that first job.
Dance Unlimited was a brand new dance studio in Kernersville. My parents decided to give it a try since they had been taking me to a place in Winston Salem for many years. I jumped right in at Dance Unlimited and was offered a part-time job working in the dance store – Dancewear Etc. I helped girls pick out leotards, ballet shoes, tap shoes, fancy bows for their hair. I worked every afternoon after school until it was time for my dance classes. Dance Unlimited was a second home for me as a teenager, and I needed it as things at home were not great. That was the time my mom was spiraling into a deep depression that would last a very long time. I found solace in being away from home and doing something productive in the afternoons. And, that amazing paycheck!
I was promoted in the fall of 1988 to assistant dance teacher. My role was to lead the warm-up activities for the classes of younger children. I would bounce back and forth from each dance room getting girls ready to dance. I was at the studio some days from 3-10 pm. It was my safe space. I drifted away from dance my senior year of high school. I was more interested in a bad boy who was also my boyfriend than in dance. I do regret that, and often think about how life would have turned out differently if I had stuck with dance. Good old hindsight, right? But it was a great first job and I will always cherish those memories of Dance Unlimited.