Hello and welcome back to “Gracie Meets…”! The motto for the United States Postal Service is neither snow nor rain, nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. This means that no matter what happens, these mail carriers will make sure you receive your letters and packages. Nothing will stop them from bringing their customers joy, not even a flood or snow. To get some information about this little talked about job, I’ve invited Miss Verenda Smith, my local mail carrier onto the show today. Go ahead and give it a listen to learn more!
Show Music: 2019 07 25 cello pizz 01 and 250109 rhodes 02 by Morusque used under Creative Commons License CC BY. No alterations were made to the original composition.
Cover Art: Kyleigh Kinsey. Instagram: @ato._.noodle
TRANSCRIPT
Gracie Solomon 00:11
Hello, and welcome back to Gracie Meets… The motto for the United States Postal Service is neither snow nor rain, nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. This means that no matter what happens, these mail carriers will make sure you receive your letters and packages. Nothing will stop them from bringing their customers joy, not even a flood or snow. To get some information about this little talked about job, I’ve invited Miss Verenda Smith, my local mail carrier onto the show today. Tell the listeners a little bit about yourself.
Verenda Smith 00:45
Well, you know, I’m a mail carrier, and I have two kids. And other than it I enjoy my job sometimes. And I enjoy being around people and meeting different people.
Gracie Solomon 00:58
What do you think makes your job not normal?
Verenda Smith 01:01
A lot of times it depends. I guess I’m gonna say, I guess the bad part about is maybe the different things that you have to go through in order to get the job done that a lot of people don’t know about. You know, everybody assumed that is just, we just oh, we just deliver packages and mail but it don’t entail all of that. It entails a lot because when we first when I first get to work I have to get the mail in order, in order for me to come out here and get it to you guys.
Gracie Solomon 01:25
So you have to like sort it?
Verenda Smith 01:27
Yes. Sort it, put in order you know, post to my streets and all this kind of stuff. So it’s not it’s not everybody thinks it’s just like we just go to work and then come outside but it don’t entail, it entails a whole lot more than that.
Gracie Solomon 01:39
How often does your job change?
Verenda Smith 01:42
It I mean, a job any job changes with just say maybe yearly or just if you have new people in charge, everybody try to do something different to make you better. You know, so it is a change. It depends on who was in charge or whatever like that. But other than it is a is pretty much the same thing. Just make sure everything customer service and make sure everything is good for everybody.
Gracie Solomon 02:06
So do you try to like make your part of the job like unique?
Verenda Smith 02:11
Yeah, yeah, just as I try to satisfy the type person I am I try to satisfy my customers because I think our job is really based on customer service. So you give good customer service, you get good product. So you try to do that in order for people to continue to come to the post office.
Gracie Solomon 02:26
Well, do you think there are any changes that are on the horizon that may affect the future growth of this job?
Verenda Smith 02:32
Yeah, It probably will I just say just the competition let’s just say from Amazon, UPS you know, everybody’s trying to compete to get the upper hand on everything so you can continue to stay in business. You know what I’m saying? So we have to compete with other people that do the same thing that we do but on our own unique thing about us they don’t they don’t go to every house everyday which we do becuase we get we deliver mail which is important to a lot of people.
Gracie Solomon 02:58
And I feel like the changes in technology would also kind of…
Verenda Smith 03:06
Yeah it do it did that do have a lot do because just say a lot like just say a long time ago when I first started because I’ve been at the post office almost 20 years when I first thought it first class mail was really big not because a lot of people do it like just say you pay your bills online you order everything online, a lot of things do online so they stop kind of stop cut our mail in half like as far as delivering letters and stuff like that. So they kind of slow it down a little bit but only thing that helps us out a lot it’s like the packages and stuff like this so but other than that, that’ll be the future just because of different technology.
Gracie Solomon 03:39
What is the best part of your job in your opinion?
Verenda Smith 03:43
The people because I really enjoy talking to you knows a lot of different people and I enjoy they enjoy their part especially I’m out being in a relationship with everybody you know everybody’s different so you have a different relationships with people and I think I like that a lot just dealing with a lot of different people.
Gracie Solomon 03:59
So this is kind of one of those people jobs.
Verenda Smith 04:02
Yeah, you have to be like a people’s person try to be you know, I’m saying try I will try it you know because that’s because just because to me, a lot of people don’t look at it like you just think we deliver mail but a lot of times you build a relationship just with the person just because you know what I’m saying so you never know what kind of you run into so when you run a different type of people but it’s still a good job I think I like it like that because I’m trying to be a people’s person customer service person. Yeah.
Gracie Solomon 04:26
Um, is there a worst part of your job?
Verenda Smith 04:28
Probably the weather because you have to do it in any type of weather so other than it just probably the weather you have to every day that I thing I do every morning like I look at the news just so I can see what the weather is because you know it’s up and down plus we in Texas, so you know the weather be you know the summer we have some long summers but I like I think it’s better than me having to go out there and shovel snow walk in ice but it ain’t too bad. So once you start doing you get used to so you know what to expect.
Gracie Solomon 04:56
What does a person who would fit into this profession look like because I know you talked about being a people person, but is that a requirement?
Verenda Smith 05:02
Yeah, I mean, it really is like, it, to me, if you pick this career, just be ready to work. You know what I’m saying? Just as far as anything like, if it’s not what you want to do, just make sure you have a passion for it if you if that’s what you want to do, you know, saying, it is a good job to have. Yeah.
Gracie Solomon 05:23
If you could start all over, would you change your career path?
Verenda Smith 05:26
I probably would. Because for one, I didn’t finish college like I would have. If I think I would finish college I probably wouldn’t be here. You know what I’m saying? But it had it had provided good for my family. But if I think I think I used to want to be a police officer. And then I had ended up starting when I went to school for I went college for like, almost two years. And like little things like that sometimes, like some days, you know, just say, if I’m outside, and it’s hot, I be saying Oh I should’ve finished school and I could’ve done something different. You know, every, that’s like on every job is gonna have its ups and downs.
Gracie Solomon 06:01
Well, why did you want to be a police officer?
Verenda Smith 06:04
At the time, to me, I just the I think at the time when I was in school, which was a long time ago, just for the change just for like the community just to see a difference in the community. Because I will always have had the thing like, I don’t want everybody to think a police officer is bad, because they’re not. You know what I’m saying? Like that. Yeah.
Gracie Solomon 06:24
So you knew you wanted to be in kind of the community service…
Verenda Smith 06:28
Yeah. community, some type of community service kind of job, yeah. Because I like to deal with people.
Gracie Solomon 06:35
Yeah. Is there a best time to pick this career like age wise?,
Verenda Smith 06:39
To me, I think younger, because it because it comes sometimes a job can be physically challenging. So I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t advise nobody to start like your 40 something, start early. That way, you know, what you what you’re doing, and what it entail, and the physical, you know, the physical part of it, the physical labor of it, and then you’re able to do it. So I say, early as possible just career you choose.
Gracie Solomon 07:04
What is a piece of advice that you would give to a high schooler either about the job or just about going into adulthood?
Verenda Smith 07:11
Just to me, I will tell you ensure that you go to school, and whatever you pick, whatever career you pick, pick something that you really interested in. And if you pick something you’re interested in, opposed to something that you’re not interested in, you pick something you’re interested in to make your career my last longer, because it’s something you enjoy doing. You know what I’m saying? So make sure you be conscious like this, what I want to do, because you don’t want to be at an age, like you constantly switching jobs, you can’t build your future, like for your retirement. Oh, like you want to start a family and stuff like that, but do something that you enjoy, and that makes you want to go to work every day also.
Gracie Solomon 07:49
Yeah, it’s like whatever you do that, that is…
Verenda Smith 07:52
Yeah, cause you do gonna something you don’t like, you gonna go to work every day negative, you’re not gonna think positive about it. So that to me, if you go somewhere thinking that you go into something thinking negative, you’re not going to enjoy yourself, so do something that you want to just put your mind on wanting to do. And always try to stay in school and have you know, make sure you keep stay focus you know, I’m saying don’t lose track of what you want to do because you can do anything you put your mind to.
Gracie Solomon 08:18
Yeah, it’s like that phrase where it’s like, if you do a job that you that really love then it’s not it’s you’re not working a day in your life.
Verenda Smith 08:26
Yeah, that what I’m saying is just like that so if it’s something you want to do stick to it because even you know a lot of times people say oh, this is what I want to do but then say you just say when you if you going to school or something, you going to school and you say oh i’m gonna not gonna do that anymore because it’s hard, but it is something that you want to do. It might be hard but it might take you a little longer but stillstay focused and do it because it’s gonna be it’ll pay off in the long run because it’ll be something that you want to do you know, I’m saying opposed to some you don’t want to do because you don’t want to wake up are your life Oh, I didn’t want to do this. You know what I’m saying? You don’t want to live like that. You know, just always think the positive. I always remember the positive outweigh the negative. You know what I’m saying? So don’t ever think oh, this you don’t want to be like that. Because you know, you know you want to live your life happy, you young right now. Think like that think positive and don’t say they’ll come back. It’ll come to you. You know, I’m saying even if you just say if your high school, when you get to college, you might you might feel like oh, I want to do this. But then you want to change to somebody else if that’s what interests you stick to it, and you can do it.
Gracie Solomon 09:29
Well, that was some great advice. And thank you for letting me interview you.
Verenda Smith 09:33
Okay, no problem Gracie.
Gracie Solomon 09:35
Miss Verenda told us about all the hardships mail carriers go through that I didn’t know about. Being a mail carrier is harder work than you would think. You have to be ready for any type of weather conditions from extreme heat to hurricanes to floods. Plus, you have to be a people person. Next time you see your local mail carrier, go ahead and thank them for everything that they do for our communities. No normal person could go out and deliver mail in the middle of a winter or during a hurricane, but then again, show me a normal teenager. Thanks for listening. Thanks for tuning in. If you like Gracie Meets… subscribe, so you can listen every time a new episode is dropped and follow Gracie Meets… on Instagram at Gracie dot Meets (@gracie.meets) tune in next Saturday for a magical interview with a magician.