“We All Start Somewhere”
It’s a little after 4:30 in the afternoon. Almost everyone is gone, and the only people left in the orchard are the truck driver, my dad, and I. Now that everyone is done picking and has gone home the only thing left to do is load all the bins up on the truck so we can head out as well. However I noticed something strange. It’s been quiet for a while, and I haven't seen or heard the forklift in the past hour. My dad should be zipping through the rows right now, but for some reason he has just disappeared. After hooking up the trailer to the truck I start my search for him. I walk through the rows of lemon trees but there is no sign of him. The forklift is just sitting there and so are all the bins. I then go over to the truck driver and what do you know he and my dad where just laughing and had completely forgot about work. I remind my dad that we aren't finished yet, and we can’t leave until all those bins are up on the truck.
He says, “You're right. You better get to it then.” When I heard him say this I was so happy. My dad is giving me a chance to prove myself here at work. So before he had the chance to say anything else I took off running the the forklift. However when I got to it something had crossed my mind. I have only driven the forklift once and the conditions were completely different. The bins were empty so if i dropped them it was only a matter of picking them back up. Now if I dropped any of them here we would have a problem. At this point I had lost all confidence in getting this done but I didn't want to let my dad down and embarrass him and myself in front of his friend.
Well I wasn't going to get anything done just standing around so I jumped on and hoped for the best. Picking up the first bin was no problem, but I didn't think I could stack them. I approached the second bin cautiously. I was so nervous that I would drop the bin. Finally as it red to stack it up on top I noticed I didn't have them aligned correctly. So I put it In reverse and tried again. I think it took me about 5 minutes to just get to bins. I thought to myself,” Dad makes this look so easy.” So after about 20 minutes I finally had the first four bins out. At this rate we'll never make it home. After a while I think my dad noticed I was struggling. He came over and told me to turn it off because he had to tell me something. I was scared I was preparing myself for a disappointed talk from him, but it turned out to be the complete opposite. He told me to come over and look at this line that was sticking out in the between the middle of the forks. He said,” Do you see this here. Use this as a guide to line up the bins.That's why they are made with a leg in the middle.”
Here I was afraid of messing up, afraid of letting my dad down, but even when he saw me struggle he let me continue because he knew I could do it. He said,” It doesn't matter if we’re here all night I'm gonna help you do this.” After hearing what he said I gained the confidence to get back on and get this done. It still took awhile, and I still struggled but I did it I got all the bins out of the rows. I was proud of myself I had accomplished a lot,even though my dad loaded them on the truck he was also proud of me, and he said,” Don't worry we all gotta start somewhere.”
It’s a little after 4:30 in the afternoon. Almost everyone is gone, and the only people left in the orchard are the truck driver, my dad, and I. Now that everyone is done picking and has gone home the only thing left to do is load all the bins up on the truck so we can head out as well. However I noticed something strange. It’s been quiet for a while, and I haven't seen or heard the forklift in the past hour. My dad should be zipping through the rows right now, but for some reason he has just disappeared. After hooking up the trailer to the truck I start my search for him. I walk through the rows of lemon trees but there is no sign of him. The forklift is just sitting there and so are all the bins. I then go over to the truck driver and what do you know he and my dad where just laughing and had completely forgot about work. I remind my dad that we aren't finished yet, and we can’t leave until all those bins are up on the truck.
He says, “You're right. You better get to it then.” When I heard him say this I was so happy. My dad is giving me a chance to prove myself here at work. So before he had the chance to say anything else I took off running the the forklift. However when I got to it something had crossed my mind. I have only driven the forklift once and the conditions were completely different. The bins were empty so if i dropped them it was only a matter of picking them back up. Now if I dropped any of them here we would have a problem. At this point I had lost all confidence in getting this done but I didn't want to let my dad down and embarrass him and myself in front of his friend.
Well I wasn't going to get anything done just standing around so I jumped on and hoped for the best. Picking up the first bin was no problem, but I didn't think I could stack them. I approached the second bin cautiously. I was so nervous that I would drop the bin. Finally as it red to stack it up on top I noticed I didn't have them aligned correctly. So I put it In reverse and tried again. I think it took me about 5 minutes to just get to bins. I thought to myself,” Dad makes this look so easy.” So after about 20 minutes I finally had the first four bins out. At this rate we'll never make it home. After a while I think my dad noticed I was struggling. He came over and told me to turn it off because he had to tell me something. I was scared I was preparing myself for a disappointed talk from him, but it turned out to be the complete opposite. He told me to come over and look at this line that was sticking out in the between the middle of the forks. He said,” Do you see this here. Use this as a guide to line up the bins.That's why they are made with a leg in the middle.”
Here I was afraid of messing up, afraid of letting my dad down, but even when he saw me struggle he let me continue because he knew I could do it. He said,” It doesn't matter if we’re here all night I'm gonna help you do this.” After hearing what he said I gained the confidence to get back on and get this done. It still took awhile, and I still struggled but I did it I got all the bins out of the rows. I was proud of myself I had accomplished a lot,even though my dad loaded them on the truck he was also proud of me, and he said,” Don't worry we all gotta start somewhere.”