Melissa Almonor
UML Student
The best words to see on your financial aid package are “work study.”
Now, if you’re smart, you’d get on the work-study search immediately. If you procrastinate like me, you get stuck with whatever job is left. I had the lovely opportunity to work at The Kids Corner, an after-school program for kids six to 12 years old.
The day I went in for my interview, I saw a brawl between five boys, all under the age of seven, over which Legos belonged to whom. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I spent six hours with over 150 kids. On a regular basis, I would deal with crying, fighting and the occasional puking on the staircase.
At The Kids Corner, if a child was misbehaving they would be sent to the time-out wall. It never amounted to enough of a punishment to keep them out of further trouble, as the wall was never without children. And surprisingly, a co-worker of mine, Jeremy, had two misbehaving children, Michael and Janet.
Michael was the oldest and was often sent to the time-out wall for talking back and saying repeatedly, “You’re not my mom. You can’t tell me what to do.”
Michael may have been a handful, but it was Janet who was really smart. Janet was the cutest blonde-haired, green-eyed six year old you would ever meet. She was also missing her two front teeth so she looked extra innocent.
One day, I was working behind the welcome desk when Janet came up to the window with a white box in her hand.
“Can you hold my marbles at my daddy’s desk?” she asked.
“Of course,” I said. And just as I put my hands out to take the box from her, she opened it and gave me the biggest marble in the bunch. She was so sweet.
Soon after, Janet’s mom came to pick her up, and there was hysterical crying coming from the girls’ coat room.
Kelsey had lost her box of marbles, or at least that’s what she had thought. What she hadn’t thought of was that Janet had stolen her box of marbles, and that I was an accomplice. Janet had done something similar to this before, so Jeremy wasn’t shocked at all.
About a month later, I came in and dropped my belongings behind the welcome desk and went to set up in the art room. When I came back, Jeremy handed me my wallet and said, “Count to see if you’re missing anything, Janet went through your purse.”
After my work study was over, they tried to hire me. I kindly declined.
