My job 

freshmen

year was at McWhirter Hall. I was a janitor. They paid me 7.93 an hour, there was no negotiation. I applied, they interviewed me, and then they told me that was the pay when would I like to begin.

The job was easy enough. My four hour shift could be completed within an hour, and then I would have the rest of the time to do whatever I wanted. The rest of the

janitors

who were also students like me just jacked off. Not literally, but they would watch TV or just sit on their phones.

I spent my slack time working on homework. If they're going to pay me to do nothing, might as well use it on school, I thought. It would help offset a little the huge tuition.

McWhirter Hall was about a eight minute walk from my dorm. I'd like these walks a lot. One of my favorite parts was going over the river on the bridge. I'd always run into somebody I knew there 

Now I'm not an extravert. I'd much rather not run into people while walking to work. But that year I remember anytime I did run into someone on that bridge it was someone I liked.

Like this guy from my calculus class Dylan. We didn't sit next to each other but we'd always be early for class so would chat. I would have nothing to say, but he would always have something offbeat to open up the conversation with that would make me chuckle or think about something ordinary in a different light. This would always get me to realize I did have something to say. And then we would chat for about four or five minutes before class would begin.

One day I was going to my evening shift, heading south on the bridge when he spotted me from the other side. Hey! he waved. And then he ran across the road, jaywalking, and came up to me.

He asked what I was doing? Going to work, I said. Bummer, well we should get dinner sometime. I said that would be good. 

I never wore my uniform. In almost every other dorm the janitors wore their uniforms. I think McWhirter hall was the only one where we didn't. You could still tell that we were janitors though because we carried around a 

walkie talkie

and wore a 

lanyard

.