Because These Jobs Exist, Too

When I was a kid, I knew about the big community helper jobs, the doctors, policemen, and teachers. I knew that I could grow up and have a career doing these things and that they were honorable and noble professions.

I knew that my dad went into a factory that made bread and that we got to eat fresh bread because my dad was in charge of making sure all the machines there baked the bread to their tasty goodness. My dad’s job smelled like heaven and so did he. When he would come home from work, I would hug him hard, and he smelled like fresh baked bread. I knew his job existed.

I am so happy to be partnering with 1 in One Hundred Million today to talk about the real people who work every day.

When I was in high school, I worked at a chain retail store. Scanning items as people purchased them, front facing rows and rows of shampoo bottles to replace the ones people bought off the shelves. This wasn’t a job I had ever thought about until I actually did it myself. That there was a person coming in behind my mom and pulling all the items to the front of the shelf after she bought them.

I think it’s that way with a lot of jobs. I think a lot of times we forget to show our kids that these jobs exist. That it isn’t just the doctors and policemen that make our world go around. I know I didn’t think about the people out there sweeping the streets or putting my produce on the shelves. These people are the real people that make it possible for us to live in clean cities and eat fresh food.

What about the guy at the gator farm? The guy making it so that we know a lot about gators, and working for their conservation?

And what about the zookeepers? What about the people who work their tails off so we can have an amazing place to go and learn about animals. So we can learn more about the animals and how the eat, what makes them happy?

There are SO many cool jobs that exist, and that is why I LOVE this series. It’s real jobs. Jobs that aren’t the same five jobs we all know about, actual people doing actual work in real life.