Faithful Delivery – Pencils

In August, 2013 I took a job as a City Carrier Assistant with the United States Postal Service. My training was minimal and, according to one of my trainers, insufficient. He said as much during the training, saying that management had reduced our training days from five to two. I certainly felt insufficiently trained for months. I was given new routes to deliver each day and expected to deliver said routes in a time comparable to a seasoned carrier. I worked ten and twelve (and sometimes more) hour days and didn’t have a regular day off. I lost about 50 pounds in the first six months and my body was regularly in some sort of pain. I didn’t have time to draw. It was difficult to have a social life because I couldn’t make plans. I didn’t know when I would have a day off or when I would get off work.

But I persevered. In the last week of December, 2014 I made “career” and became a City Carrier. Within a couple of months I had my own route, near the station and near home. I still worked long hours because I put myself on the Overtime Desired List but at least now I knew where I would be delivering for most of the day and I knew what days I would have off. And I had benefits as part of my compensation that, as a CCA, I’d either not had or had to pay for out of pocket.

I work with good people who bust their asses to get the mail where it’s supposed to go in a timely manner. On most days it’s a satisfying job. Sometimes it’s even fun. I laugh at the dogs who go nuts when I put in an appearance. Human folks are generally friendly. Kids get irrationally excited to see me. And everybody loves to get a package.