Monday, July 20, 1998
Learn about life for $4.75 per hour
JOB: Working for Toys R Us gives very different perspective from sheltered world of UCLA
For me, summer always evokes memories of my very first job. The pursuit of a job was an endeavor I eagerly set out upon, intending it to only last for that summer before college. Little did I know that it would be a job I held for almost three years. It turned out to be one hell of an experience.
I had just graduated from high school. I was near the top of my graduating class, garnering awards, going to UCLA. I was on top of the world. So that summer, I decided to pursue a summer job. After numerous applications, I had been hired at Toys R Us.
My very first memory centered on an ominous sign posted in the upstairs storage room. It said, "Welcome to Hell." Oh, what an inviting sign. I must have lost 20 pounds that summer by climbing insanely high ladders, lifting 50 pound cribs, or unloading trucks filled with diapers, Power Rangers and Polly Pockets.
That first month or so was truly a humbling time. I remember lovingly (I hope) being nicknamed "Nomo" (in reference to the former Dodger Hideo Nomo) by some of my co-workers. I remember mopping the entire store, dumping out the garbage and even cleaning out the restrooms.
My first reaction to all this was that I didn't really need this $4.75 per hour job. I should just quit. I believed that I was better than just a storeroom slave or a janitor. But for some reason, I stuck it out.
Even after that summer, I decided to keep the job and work during the school year. Yes, I crazily decided to work about 20 hours my first quarter at school. Bad idea: it was a psychotic time.
I came home dead tired from work, faced with the prospect of studying for Math 3A or Chem 11A. Hey, I was even conned by my manager to work on the night before my Psych 15 final. Still, I stayed loyal (or maybe insane?).
But what kept me there? I think I first realized this late one Friday night, while sweeping the stockroom at work. At first, I thought about what the other UCLA freshmen were doing and what I was missing out on. Then, more importantly, I thought about how working there slowly made me a better person.
The contrast between work and school was huge - the real world versus an imaginary world. I think that work became something like a refuge: school was just so unreal. School always surrounded me with people who wanted the same things as me, people with goals and lofty expectations, the smart and motivated. I was with the elitest of the elite.
At work, I got to experience real life, the real world. People for whom a promotion at Toys R Us meant the world. I slowly gained perspective.
A huge part of the experience at Toys R Us was sharing a part of my life with the other employees. As time went on, my co-workers somehow found out that I went to UCLA. They all thought I was some genius or freak.
I suddenly became inundated with questions about school. I felt like I was the general catalog, the schedule of classes, the central authority on higher learning. Also, people found out that I wanted to be a doctor and asked me to treat them when I had my own practice. It seemed as though I was the great hope, the one who would rise out of Toys R Us.
All in all, those people were some of the most wonderful individuals I had ever met. Maybe I just got lucky, but I met some very quality people there. For one, they were all real. My coworkers were never superficial or full of crap. They knew who they were.
I remember my department head, who worked full-time at Toys R Us at night while working full-time at Pic N Save during the day.
I still can't believe that there were also students there who worked the night shift while attending school during the day.
I realized that in no possible way was I working my butt off. I was a slacker compared to them. If life was hard for me, it was all the more difficult for them. But as different as we all seemed to be, we got along extremely well. We were silly, and we didn't care about our different races or backgrounds. We were white, yellow, brown and black all mixed into one. It didn't matter.
My friends Adrian, Mike and Cesar were closer to me than any of my friends at UCLA. They understood me and I understood them. The four of us even nicknamed ourselves the Four Horsemen, proud of the bonds that we shared. I would defend them anywhere, also knowing in the back of my mind that they would never let me down.
Truly I grew up at Toys R Us in numerous other ways. I recall all of those crazy 80-hour weeks during Christmas; we were happy to work for the double overtime pay. I remember using the intercom system to call up my coworkers, informing them on the locations of all the pretty girls in the store. I improved my more "practical" usage of Spanish and Armenian.
Hey, I admit it; we stashed Star Wars action figures to prevent the crazy collectors from getting to them. We even made loud, echoing monkey noises in the stockrooms, making customers believe that Toys R Us bred live animals back there. I really did survive the Christmas crazes for Power Rangers and Tickle Me Elmos. Those were the days.
Looking back on it all, I loved working at Toys R Us. As different as we all were, we never segregated ourselves from each other by focusing on our differences. In my mind, that microcosm of a community separates itself from the UCLA campus community, which seems so blatantly segregated.
Another thing that I realized was that I could succeed in the real world and rely on something other than my brains. I started from a measly $4.75 and am proud to say that I moved all the way up to $6.85 (everyone thought that I moved up faster than anyone else did).
I started from nothing, not being privileged in any way from anyone else. I had to rely on common sense, customer service and sheer physical ability to work well. I truly believe I succeeded.
Moreover, throughout those times, I admit I occasionally thought I was better than all of this. I thought that I did not need to sweep the floors or be told to go to a hell by a gentleman who couldn't get the Barbie scooter he wanted for his daughter.
But in truth, I am nothing special and in no way better than anyone else. I need to always remember my job at Toys R Us, the humbling experience that challenged me to constantly fight for the best and treat everyone with respect and dignity.
My job at Toys R Us shaped a part of who I am today. I am still left with many battle wounds - cuts here and there from all of the lifting and physical work. I still might even smell from climbing into the trash compactor many times. But all in all, I loved working there. As a child, Toys R Us was my favoritest place, and I proudly admit that it still is.
Abrajano is a fourth-year English and molecular, cellular and developmental biology student.
E-mail comments to jabrajan@ucla.edu.