Patience and Place

Who and where we were matters.

The first job I had was as a maintenance worker at a local city park. 

It was the summer of 2007. I was a 16-year-old soon-to-be junior in high school. It was my first summer without football conditioning since middle school.¹

I reported to the park between six and seven each morning. The Air Force vets who served as my taskmasters would occasionally greet…