Achievement: Option 2a: a result gained by effort Option 2b: a great or heroic deed Option 3: the quality and quantity of a student's work
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
I'm not sure if many would consider this an achievement or even a great one, to me though it stands to show that my efforts don't go unnoticed. Throughout my life, I have taken to helping others grow and achieve what they want to do and this has earned me a reputation at practically every place I have worked or gone to school. This started in elementary school going on into middle school then high school and into now my college career and work and even my unpaid internships and other involvement. It seems as if every corner I turn whether I am at one of those aforementioned places or just out and about that someone knows me for one reason or another even if I may not know them personally.
I have a few stories to do with this reputation that I have built. The one that was most unexpected for me was when I was in a grocery store one day, I was just picking up a few things that I was out of and as I approached the checkout I could hear one of the workers call out my name. I looked up and saw one of my friends from a year ago at the time and was surprised and pleased that she still remembered me as my appearance had changed somewhat since she last saw me, this is something that has been ingrained in me by other people, the expectation that no one will remember me once they are done with me. She proceeded to scan my items as she called out to her two subordinates, she is the manager of the store, that I was the entire reason she was able to graduate from college. Now that was news to me and I couldn't recall a time where I had helped her that much and asked her how I had done that. She responded that I was the only reason she passed her accounting class, now I don't even remember having helped her in her accounting class she needed to take until she started pointing out times that I had forgotten until that point. We were friends I didn't expect helping a friend would garner such praise as she was already highly accomplished and skilled in her field, someone I would want running my business with her fair judgment and calm attitude in most any situation. I left the store and haven't talked to her since as we're both very busy people.
Another time that I realized that a lot of people knew me and wanted to interact with me and rely on me was when I was walking through the front office at my retail job and was stopped by someone who didn't work in my section and who I had only interacted briefly with, in the breakroom. He called out my name and I paused for a moment in surprise and slight shock before asking what he needed, my helpful nature kicking in instantly at his slightly flustered expression, he proceeded to ask me how to do something while a couple of team leads and HR associates were only a few steps away and had been there before I was. I helped me leading him through the steps to do what he wanted before asking if he needed anything else and with a negative response I was off to complete my break before returning to work. This wasn't the first job someone had relied on me over other more qualified individuals before.
I can still remember the frantic phone call as I was just getting home from classes, it was one of my coworkers from my food service job, my first ever job, at the time and she sounded so frazzled as she asked me if I could come in early for my shift to help her out, my instant answer was that yes I would come in and that I would be there in about 20 minutes as I needed to change into my uniform and walk to our workplace which was about a 20 minute casual stroll from my house. Now I can remember the snow and how I trudged through it, at the time I didn't think about it but she should have called the manager to come to help instead of me. When I got there I realized the problem, the morning person did not complete their tasks before leaving for the day, which left us short on a lot of the food prep that should have already been done. I put on my apron after shedding my coat and clocked in to then tell her to go to the back and start more food prep while I took care of the front of the store, knowing for a fact that I was faster than her when it came to preparing food for guests and we still had a few guests to take care of. Once the small rush was done I went back to help her and asked her finally why she hadn't called the manager who was on call for the weekend, her response was one I wouldn't forget, she was too afraid to call the manager to come in as she had called the manager before me and had been told straight out that the manager would not come in and that we needed to fend for ourselves. I was irate as the day continued and told her that I was glad she called me to help. Later that night a team of wrestlers came in from a match before heading home, I knew we wouldn't be able to handle it and decided to call the manager once again to ask for help, I was told that no she would not come in. I was pissed off and decided to call on my other coworkers to see if anyone would be available to come in, no one was, that's when I was going to take it to the next step, I was going to call the owners' son to come in and help as he had told me that he would come in and help if we needed at anytime. In my flustered state I ended up accidentally calling my manager once again and as I answered saying how I knew it wasn't his weekend but that we really needed help I was interrupted by her voice saying that she would come in but if it wasn't as bad as I said it was that she would write up both myself and the other worker. When she came in, it took until 30 minutes to close to get caught up on everything, which was 3 hours after she had come in to help. After that day she tried to turn people against me through passive aggressive notes, the only reason I even found out that she was trying to turn people against me was because my coworkers who I openly helped told me, and I didn't know at the time that I could have reported her for harassment, I did know though that when I got written up for something that I did not do that I was done. I put in my two-week notice and left once the time was up, I also left a note for the owners on how this manager had treated me.My greatest achievement is having earned a reputation that people can rely on me to get things done and to help as much as I can.
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What do you consider your greatest achievement?
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