Well I've been happily enrolled in college and attending classes at the University of Utah for over a month and a half now. I'm thoroughly enjoying my time and I love all my classes. Yet despite my "easy" life, I can't help but occasionally reflect on my days at Brycon. Although we complained every day about working, and I can't remember a good hour where I wasn't dozing off, I sometimes feel that maybe it was a good experience, ya know?
It had always been part of my plan to write a review/summary about our summer at Brycon, and wrap up our experiences whether they were good, bad, dreary, memorable, uninteresting, spectacular, or just plain crappy. Every day was another adventure, and I quickly found that keeping a daily journal of the goings-on at Micron--especially after a 10 hour work day--was a tedious and sometimes overwhelming commitment. Thankfully I was able to do it, day in and day out, even when I was way too tired and my mom constantly pestered me to go to bed. My buddies laughed when I told them I was blogging our adventures, and I couldn't blame them...it was pretty nerdy--but it was better than writing in a journal, and easier. Then when I finally persuaded Skye to finish off the very last week (which he did for a few of the days) and he read a few of the entries, he actually did express some gratitude toward my foresight in recording as much as I could possibly remember. We, all of us, had to admit that although we pretty much hated the job most of the time, we had way too many funny moments and good experiences to let them slip entirely into the back of our minds and become forgotten forever.
So I kept this record, and it was a good thing.
Brycon...what can I say about you? I won't forget you, that's for sure. When we applied for the job, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. No, it wasn't a horribly overwhelming task we'd undertaken, but the enormity of our situation (6am work, 10 hours per day, etc.) was somewhat unnerving to begin with. The work was peculiar--one wouldn't consider it to be traditional construction, yet it was construction in every sense of the word. The days weren't exciting, like one expects a construction job to be, but monotonous. They were tiring, but then, nobody ever really woke up in the first place. Ron said to me once, during a conversation about work, "You never really wake up in there. You don't wake up until 4:30, when you get off work. There's just something about it inside that keeps you asleep." He was right. Someone jokingly asked me if they were pumping ether into the FAB when I told them you couldn't wake up, but it made me wonder.
I can't really say enough about how completely weird of a job it was. It was simply nothing like we'd imagined, nothing like we'd ever imagined, and I'm not sure how many jobs there are like it in the world. It was certainly a once-in-a-lifetime experience--or let's hope, at least. It was one of those jobs that you're glad you worked once, so you can say you did it--let's face it, it is pretty cool to tell someone that you built a clean room for manufacturing NAND Flash Technology that is used in iPods, cameras, phones, and lots of other useful gadgets...it just is--but it's also one of those jobs that every teenager needs to have at one point, if only to scare them into finishing high school and going to college.
We learned a lot about real work this summer that we probably wouldn't have learned otherwise. At first it surprised us that we were treated like adults. Up until then we weren't only minors, but we had never really been treated as equals, at least to the same degree as the guys down at Brycon treated us. I suppose it was true that we earned the same wages and did the same work, but it was just something new. It was nice to experience that finally, especially after high school.
We learned a lot about how a clean room worked, and was assembled. This was especially interesting to me, as I'm planning on majoring in Architecture, but it was also just really an idea that none of us had ever considered. There is an amazing amount of work that goes into these clean rooms that you wouldn't just think about.
Not only did we learn a lot of useful things, but we were able to meet people from all over the country. Working with them really opened our eyes to the variety of personalities there are in the world--it's true, we do live a sheltered life, and it's not as often that you get to work with a hungover mexican guy who spouts crazy lines like "Are you sure?" or "Vamanos vaya Wyoming!" Sure they weren't the best influence, and I've never heard so many f-ing f-words in my life before, but these men and women were good people. You sometimes don't expect to meet wonderful, warm-hearted individuals working construction, but every one of our coworkers had a soft spot, and every one was very polite. Most of them somehow knew we were LDS, and tried their best to tone down their language when we were around. Brad and I were especially thankful and surprised that they would willingly do such a thing without being asked or approached about it.
I guess our coworkers were the best part about working at Brycon. We'd ball it up with Ron and Thomas on Tuesdays. Sometimes Bryce would come, sometimes Ian would too. The whole premise seemed crazy to me at the time. After a 10 hour workday, let's all get back together and play some basketball for 2 or 3 more hours. Sure we'll be aching tomorrow, but quit being a baby! Other than basketball, we got invited to a few more events--namely Skye got invited--like Cowboy's birthday party. Skye was the only one who actually was invited and actually went, and nobody would have minded if the rest of us showed up, cause they loved us, but we just didn't. At the party Thomas kept offering Skye beers, not cause he wanted Skye to drink, but he thought it was pretty funny that Skye kept refusing it. He could offer all the beer he wanted to Skye and be certain that he wouldn't really have to share it in the end. It was actually the perfect situation for both parties. Neither had to do anything he didn't want to, yet all of the social protocol was observed.
Thomas was great, Cowboy was funny, Geneva and Elvina were entertaining in their own ways, Alfredo made me and Brad almost pee our pants, Luis and Arturo scared me to begin with cause they rode the lifts around and covered most of their faces in beard covers, Lawrence always looked out for us, and then there was Ron who topped them all and made our day, everyday. Don't forget us though, Quinn, Brad, Skye, Griffin, Jeff, Brady, and I all laughed it up in between work and kept each other going. In fact, I was just remembering the one time that Griffin made me laugh really hard. Brad and I were just getting into his car and pulling out of a parking stall at Kohlers, and Griffin was entering something into his phone in his car with the rest of the guys inside with him. Just before we started to move Griffin said, "Wait, Brad!" and Brad stopped, waiting to hear what Griffin so urgently needed to say. But instead of saying anything, Griffin quickly kicked it into reverse and backed out of the stall, swinging his car out behind us and before we knew it, he had shifted into drive and driven off. Brad and I just started laughing in unbelief that we'd fallen for such a silly thing, but there was absolutely no way we could possibly forsee it. In case you were wondering, that's what it was like everyday. Just fun.
From the great people to the funny jokes, from the awkward moments to the times we laughed so hard we forgot why we were laughing to begin with, from the time "Cowboy called and said he doesn't like your outfit" to the time Brad knocked out his tooth and got it put right back in, from the beginning to the end. Was it worth it? I say 'yes.' We complained but it was a good job. My final say on the matter is that it was definitely worth it, and in retrospect, I miss it sometimes.
We'll never forget you Brycon. How could we?
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Waxing poetic are we? Seriously though, I agree with everything you said. It was a tough job, and the hours were hard, and the work was monotonous, and we didn't work with the model citizens of society. Some of those negatives, however, were also positives. The job was tough, we had to wake up early, and the work was often monotonous. Kind of sounds like the two-year vacations all our friends are going to be having. I feel that working at Brycon has helped me prepare for a mission more than anything else could. I had doubts that I could handle that much work, but it turned out that I worked the longest out of all of us. (Is a shameless self-promotion okay if you mention you were surprised by it?)
You were also right that the best part of Brycon was the people. Not only did I grow closer with all my previous friends who worked there, but I met people like Cowboy, Ron, Josefina, and Thomas who helped brighten my day. Gosh, now I'm waxing poetic. Oh well, I guess it comes with the territory. Maybe I'll send you a brief entry on the last two days at Brycon, for complete closure.
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