“It did derail on me three times this summer”
So, I recently just moved into my freshman year dorm, here at Michigan State University. And I’ve had a lot of time, a lot more than I thought, just to think about a lot of different things. One thing that I’ve thought about are things that I’m grateful for, and something that I’m grateful for is all of these experiences I’ve had over the past 18 years. That’s how old I am.
And one experience in particular was actually my job this summer. I feel like it’s not very common to hear about my job, but I was actually an iron mine tour guide. So there’s this place in the U.P., that’s where I’m from, it’s called The Iron Mountain Iron Mine, and I actually tour guided there.
So, what I would do, I would introduce myself. Then I would introduce a bunch of these machines that the miners used to use, back when they were mining. And then we would actually go into a iron mine on this little like train cart thing. We could hold to like 30 people, but it did derail on me three times this summer. And ironically it was all in the same week and it was my last week, so. They’re probably like, “Oh, it’s time for you to go.”
But I got to meet so many new people, like from around the world. I’m pretty sure I hit all 50 states because when I started like introducing myself I’m like, “So, where’s everybody from?” And there’s people from Wyoming, from Texas, Florida, Hawaii, Alaska. So [I just] got to experience all of that and I think it’s really cool how one thing can bring so many people together, especially in a place that’s not very heard of. Like the U.P., you obviously hear of the Mackinaw Island Bridge. They’re like, “Oh, what’s even up there? Does anybody even live up there?” Yes, there are people that live up there. No, we are not part of Wisconsin. And no, we are not a part of Canada, either. So yeah, I just wanted to share that. I think it was a very cool experience that I wouldn’t trade for the world.