Personal Reputation

            Reputations are built around the image people develop of you and the standards to which they will hold you. From a young age, my grandfather from my mother’s side told me that people would always appreciate a hard worker; he explained to me that people enjoy being around someone who is always working towards his goals and who does things well when doing favors. I took my grandfathers advice to heart and from an early age I worked hard on the things I did whether it was my schoolwork, doing shores at my house or doing work at my job. With that being said, I developed a reputation of being a hard worker within my friend group, family and work site.

            The first memory that comes to mind of someone referring to me as a hard worker is when I was in the fourth grade and I memorized the entire times table (from 1 to 12) while everyone else was still practicing how to multiply by 2. My mother had told me that it never hurt to get ahead, which inspired me to get ahead of the pack; I would do extra math problems from the text book we were given and I would look at the times table when I was bored. My fourth grade teacher was so surprised that she even used me to teach the other kids how to multiply higher numbers. My reputation as a hard worker within my family developed when I would always offer to help with shores. I would help my mother with house shores during summer vacation whether it was doing the dishes, sweeping or taking out the garbage. My reputation went beyond my immediate family and my family from Mexico took notice of my servitude when I would always offer to clean dishes after a big family dinner.

            I furthered developed my reputation as a hard worker once I entered my freshman year at college. When alumni from my high school would go and speak about their college life they would always mentioned how ridiculously difficult college was in comparison to highs school. Such a thought ignited some sort of panic within me and I became a workaholic thinking that would be the only way for me to succeed in college. I studied whenever I had free time and my friends took notice of that, further enforcing my reputation as a hard worker. My reputation didn’t stop at schoolwork, my team members from organizations I was involved in and co-workers also took notice of my work ethic. Team members from my RSO’s took notice on how quickly I got my work done, sometimes even helping other of my team members get their respective work done as well. At work, my supervisors and manager took notice of my work ethic when they realized how many extra shifts I would pick up and how I was always motivated to get out on time with the job being well done, eventually leading to a promotion.

            Being a handworker sometimes gets me in trouble as I tend to pick up more than I can handle at times. There have been various occasions were I though I could handle tons of work and either didn’t perform the tasks as I should have or had to postpone their completion. There have been times when unrealistic expectations have been set for me as well due to my reputation. Back when I used to work summers at Millennium Park my boss would write me up to work multiple double shifts that accumulated to a dozens of overtime hours over the summer, which eventually took a toll on my physical health. At times, I have been too stubborn to realize when I have too much on my plate, but as of recently I’ve learned how to manage my time more effectively so as not to overwhelm myself, but most importantly I’ve learned to say no when too much is being piled up on me.

            Though not proud of some choices I’ve made, I’ve cashed in on my reputation to get immediate gains and therefore sacrificing future gains. For example, I have given up study time that could have guaranteed higher grades in order to have more leisure time. Something that might have been nice in the moment but not in the long run. There have also been times were I pretend I’m not as hardworking as I really am so the expectations of my work wont be as high as they would otherwise. Again, choices that concentrate on the short run since I won’t be considered as highly as someone that gives their all at work.