…and my new hero is an 18 year old high school dropout.
His name is Jhaqueil Reagan and he lives close to Indianapolis, Indiana. He may be a dropout, but we need more kids like him…LOTS more.
Jhaqueil is a dropout because he quit school a couple of years ago so he could take care of his brothers and sisters after his mom’s death. Right there I got past the fact that he dropped out. As far as I can see, that wasn’t dropping out, it was prioritizing and making the right decision.
From what I read, his leaving school didn’t mean leaving his education behind as he finished his secondary education before he would have graduated in the first place, getting his GED. Second prioritization choice, second good decision.
Ya know, though…a dropout with a GED who has younger siblings to care for also has their stomaches to feed…and that takes money, which means getting a job. Now, I may be wrong, but a dropout teenager might just find it hard to find work. He might decide to take advantage of our wonderful nanny – state giveaways and suck off the state, the taxpayer’s money tit. After all, everyone knows when the job market is tough the thing to do is suck off of someone else…you know, like the 20 – somethings, perpetual students that move back into their parent’s basements and go play in the streets at Occupy Wall Street style protests, all planned out on the iPads their mommy’s
and daddy’s bought them.
So this kid Jhaqueil can go suck the government’s welfare tit, right?
Um…no.
Jhaqueil heard about a job opening at a Dairy Queen across town. 10 miles across town. And it was snowing and icy and windy and CLOD…but what the hell…Indianapolis has municipal bus service, right?
Not for Jhaqueil, at least not until he gets a job. He cannot afford bus fare, so do you know what he does?
He walks. He needed a job, he heard about a job, so he went to try to get the job. Its simple, really.
The freezing weather didn’t matter, Nor did the ice and snow or the wind. Jhaqueil had good, simple, linear thinking:
Need a job>>hear about a job>>go apply for the job = Get the job. That simple, and anything between the first and last of that equation is simply an obstacle to be overcome.
But he did not get the job, demonstrating an obvious lack of management’s good judgement at the Dairy Queen.
That’s OK though…Jhaqueil got a job. He had stopped at another restaurant along the way to ask directions, and the owner had asked why he was out in the bitter weather, walking. Jhaqueil explained about the job and his lack of bus fare…then kept walking. Art Bouvier, the owner of Papa Roux Cajun Cooking, the place he stopped for directions, saw him later when he went out on an errand, still walking. He picked him up to take him the last mile, and got his name and phone number before the kid got out of the car.
Art Bouvier’s judgement is better thanthat of the Dairy Queen’s management. He recognizes character when he sees it. He can see beyond the school dropout, beyond a poor kid who doesn’t have bus fare instead of walking 10 miles in a blizzard, who simply sees something that needs doing and does it and apparently doesn’t have “I can’t” in his vocabulary.
Art Bouvier knows a good employee when he sees one, even one who hasn’t asked him for a job. He called the kid that night and asked him how the job search went. When he found out the Dairy Queen hadn’t hired him, hadn’t hired a kid willing to walk 10 miles through a blizzard to apply, he hired him right then.
Good catch, Art.
Now I have a new hero…two9, actually. A kid who just does what has to be done, and Art bouvier, one Coon Ass I’d like to meet. Indianapolis ain’t that far…I just may eat some Cajun food soon…surely they serve red beans and rice with a couple of links of boudin.
PS: I don’t normally do this, but this is an exception. After finishing the article I called Papa Roux’s. Great folks and, I’d bet my last nickle, great Coon Ass (Cajun to you uneducated folks…LOL) food, too. If you are ever in or around the east side of AIndianapolis, grab a bite to eat there. Call ’em for exact directions at 317.603.9861. Tell ’em Bob sent ya.
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It was a great story and even better one where the good guy wins. Not that the good guy shouldn’t win but that’s not quite how society prioritizes these days. Still, I can’t stop wondering if you would have run the story it it hadn’t provided an opportunity to say ‘Coon Ass; one more time.
You don’t REALLY think I need an excuse to say Coon Ass, or anything else for that matter, do you?
Probably not!