I rode the bus home from my meeting last night. It was a cold, wet night, standing 20 minutes in the rain after missing the earlier bus by seconds. I was tired. I wanted to go home. The next bus couldn't come soon enough.
While waiting, I noticed someone familiar waiting for the bus as well, amongst the 10 or 15 of us on this poorly lit bridge, all of us either heading home after a long day or heading to work for the night shift. I didn't say anything at first. It was so dark that I couldn't be sure that I knew him or not, and if it wasn't who I thought it, I could mistakenly annoy someone who had no interest in being bothered.
Once the bus came and we boarded, turns out I was right. That man that looked familiar was Dre, a custodian at one of the academic buildings at Saint Louis University. Dre and I shared many late nights during my time at SLU as my friends and I spent out time studying in the building that he still cleans today. We caught up with each other and it was the shortest bus ride home ever.
In our conversation, Dre told me that he still has the article that I wrote about him over four years ago. It was one of my first articles with the campus newspaper. The newspaper needed someone for their "Let Us Introduce You" column, and I thought Dre would be a good choice. He's always been popular among the students, and he's been there for quite a while. Plus, the column doesn't feature university staff like the custodians or food service workers all that often.
Anyway, I wrote the article after interviewing Dre when he was on shift. He spoke about his family, and his time working at SLU, and about growing up in St. Louis. When we came to Dre's stop on the bus route, he let me know that the article still means a lot to him, and will mean more than any plaque or award that he could get.
The article is less than 500-words, and probably didn't take more than 90 minutes of my time, including the interview. However, what matters what that I took the time to do it, and to do it well.
Moral of the Day: Take the time to do things well and to do a good job, even on the simplest or what may seemingly be the most meaningless of things. You never know if those things will mean something to someone else.