I have a lot of those people in my life, I am fortunate to say. A lot of people I admire for many different reasons. I know people so full of love that everyone around them is somehow touched by their lives.
I've been working on campus after school everyday as a math tutor. I work a late shift because I have class every day until the afternoon. Sometimes we have people in there, and sometimes we just don't. That's where Mr. Martinez comes in.
One day, one of the first days, that I was working there tutoring, he wasn't aware that I'd been hired and tried to lock me out. We joked about it, and I explained to him that I was there every night now. He did his work as the maintenance man while I was in there working. I told him not to pay any mind to me, but just do whatever it was that he needed to do, and I wouldn't mind.
He is a nice man with kind eyes and white hair. Every night that I am there, he shares a little more about his life.
One night he sat down and talked to me, I mean really talked to me. He told me his philosophies on life and his job. He's been working there for nearly 40 years. He said that every day he gets up, and he looks forward to his life and his job. He takes pride in his job and doing it well. He is proud of our school and how it looks.
He shared his joy in his daughter, and I could tell he was proud of her hard work during pharmacy school. He spoke of the long drives he would take to go get her from her college in Portland, just when she needed to see a friendly face. It didn't matter that he had worked all night long. He would still go and get her to bring her back home for the weekend.
I never want to forget people like Mr. Martinez. I don't know if he knows that his small pieces of advice change my life just a little bit every night, but they do. His words matter. I see these people everywhere throughout my life, and I never want to forget their stories.
If you have a Mr. Martinez in your life, share your story! :]
Love,
Amber
