Journal 3. ch.9-12

Journal 3
Scratch Beginnings: 5-7-2010
The main focus of chapters 9-12 is Shepard’s challenges at Fast Company. It starts out with his first day on the job, working with Sammy and Bruno. His second challenge was his partnership with Shaun, a short, loudmouthed, cocky, control freak of a mover. The partnership started off well but went downhill as Shaun began to drink more and more on the job. It eventually ended because Shaun refused to stop drinking on the job and became very difficult to work with. After ending his partnership with Shaun, Shepard was assigned to work with Mike and Derrick, the best movers at Fast Company. This partnership also starts out very well and Shepard is more than happy to be working with such a capable crew. This partnership also crashed eventually as Mike became harder and harder to work with as time went on, eventually resulting in the termination of his employment at Fast Company.
Shepard’s experiences at Fast Company relate to our daily lives in that we must work with other people that we may not get along with or even like. If we want to be successful in our lives we need to learn to fight through our struggles. We also need to learn when enough is enough and when to put an end to a bad situation, like when Shepard decides to fire Mike from the team. If people are bringing us down sometimes it is necessary to cut our ties with them.
The most interesting part of this section of the book was the letter that Shepard wrote to his bus driver. It showed us that we should be thankful for people who make a difference in our lives and do jobs that might not require much skill, but are necessary to our daily lives. It was also important that Shepard showed how the bus driver’s attitude made a big difference in the lives of the passengers. Many of the passengers walked off the bus feeling that their day was going to be better just because of the way they were treated by the bus driver.