The Joys of a summer job

My summer job made me realize why those signs that say ‘Do not climb on the roof of the building’ exist. 

Over the past summer, I had a job as an Attendant at Rolling Hills Waterpark. I was the person at the top of the slides, telling people when they can go down, and answering their somewhat idiotic questions. To some extent, I wanted to tell people that asked if they could go down the slide headfirst:

“Do you want to crack your skull open?” but I obviously can’t. I understand asking it if you’re a small child, but the only people that asked it were 10 at the youngest. At that point you should know that you shouldn’t do that. 

Another thing is why, why do teenagers want to go down the kiddie slide. It is one short dip, and then it’s done. Maybe just asking once, okay fine. But they then proceed to crouch, and are still above the maximum height line. They then resort to begging if they can go down. All I could really do is repeat “No,” many times over until they give up. 

But the worst place by far had to be the splash pad. If you don’t know what that is, it’s the play structure with all the water features. Your job there is to enforce the rules. The rules that everyone wants to break. Because of course they do. You have your average people that run,  go headfirst, and climb the slides to get up (sometimes when people are going down them). However, the most outrageous thing was when a group of 18 year olds attempted to jump over their friends as they went down the slide. I don’t need to tell you why that is one of the worst ideas of all time. My absolute favorite time at the splash pad was when a day camp was there. There were about 40 kids, all on the structure. The structure is able to hold about 20 people before I get overwhelmed. Oh, but the counselors would be helping you, wouldn’t they? No, because of course not. As far as I’m concerned, they were just there to make sure the kids weren’t dead. And of course, these kids proceed to break every rule. Leading me to yell at them, to no avail. I remember one kid went down the slide headfirst on their stomach. Naturally, I yelled at them with the typical: “Feet First!” The kid acknowledged me by giving me a glance. They then proceeded to go down headfirst on their back. 

Obviously most of these things are stated in the rules, big plaques that shouldn’t be too hard to find. But of course, I expect nobody to read them. And the only time people DO read them, they attempt to put their too short kid in their lap as they go down the slide, because the rules say ‘must be above 42’’ to ride alone.’

Of course, these examples are the worst. The majority of patrons are fine. They don’t do anything bad, or good. The best patrons are just the ones that say: “thank you.” Or just start talking to me for a bit (and not asking dumb questions). I don’t care when they thank me, whether it is when they are giving me their tubes as they exit the lazy river, or just before they go down the slides. Just by showing any small amount of care they made my day. The best thing is when people just ask how my day has been. 

So all I ask of you is just be friendly to people, especially those that have jobs that aren’t the most fun sometimes. They may not remember your face, but they will remember what you said, and how it made their day that much better.