Conversation Kit: Question #18
If you asked me this question, I’d tell you about selling my leftover Halloween candy to the neighbors.
Hello, and welcome back to Conversation Kit, where I share tried-and-true questions for meaningful conversation.
Here’s this week’s question: Tell me about your first job.
Why I love this prompt: Because everyone has to start somewhere, first jobs often aren’t glamorous, but they can be fun to learn about. For example, when I asked my mother-in-law this question, she talked in detail about the red polka dot dress she had to wear as a hostess at a popular restaurant. (That was technically her second job, but the question got the ball rolling!)
These stories can also illuminate how your loved one developed the qualities that later made them successful. When I asked my former preschool teacher, Glaya, this question, she told me the story of when her grandmother entrusted her with an important responsibility.
We lived a block and a half from town, and [Star Valley] was such a quiet little community. Everybody belonged to the Church [of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints], and everybody knew everybody… It was a very idyllic childhood. But this particular day, Grandma, who wasn’t always healthy… needed some things from the grocery store. So she called the grocer, gave the order, kind of like you would on Instacart… The grocer put the order together, and he told her how much it would be. So she tied the money in a little handkerchief and gave me the handkerchief to hold, and I walked uptown by myself into the grocery store and picked up her groceries and gave the grocer the money. And I was five. I was in kindergarten at the time, so [it was] my first job.
I love this story because it sounds like something straight out of a picture book. I can easily picture little Glaya, handkerchief in hand, returning home with a bundle of groceries. But it also shows how she was taught to be responsible at a young age, which helped her to become valedictorian of her high school class.
Do your loved ones know about how you worked to get where you are today? These are valuable stories that will inspire them when the road ahead seems impossible, and I would love to preserve them for you.
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