In the summer of 2023, I worked for the first time at my aunty and uncle’s pharmacy. It was an absolute blast to work there, and to meet all of the patients and co-workers, and I was required to work to the best of my abilities and to wear some formal clothing to work every day.
Layout of the pharmacy: this pharmacy was in a brick building. You would enter the building and take a left and the pharmacy would be the first thing on the right. When you enter you would see all of this OTC (over the counter) merchandise for people to buy, out of pocket (uncovered by insurance). Then you would walk past the aisle to the register. And behind the register is where most people work. In the very back there was prescription medicine that doctors would have to prescribe to patients. Pharmacists would have to find the right pills to give out and put them in an orange bottle. In the back there is an office and a restroom where we would eat lunch.
Along the way, I kept track of interactions, and what I did for work, and instructions what to do, so that I could reflect back in the future and make memories, and share with you!
Below you can see the journal entries I made during the summer; not a tremendous amount of detail is shared, being that this is a private business, but you can get a sense of my experiences at my first job.
July 5-10:
-Clean the shelves
-Vacuum the floor
-Restock and over-the-counter check: in which I find stuff that the pharmacy needs to buy to keep it in stock
-Work the cash register
-Make phone calls to people to remind them to pick up their prescriptions
Now, giving prescriptions to those people who need them made me feel bad for the people. Like they had to go through all of these problems just to feel better. Obviously some are worse than others. I then realized how big of an impact my aunt and uncle are making towards the people. Not only them but all of the pharmacists out there. And I would like to say thank you to all of them. I’m not really thanking myself because I’m not technically a pharmacist. I don’t really deal with medicine because I’m not legally allowed to. And yes, healthcare is a business, and naturally all workers need to profit off helping people through their care, so people are willing to do that if they get paid. And healthcare workers get paid more because they are making a vital impact on their customers’ bodies, and it is a highly specialized field. And I guess that all healthcare workers have a special status-ish because in order to become one, you need to go through a long process of education.
July 17-21:
-Swept the floor
-Cleaned the floor with chemicals
-Worked the cash register
-Sorted new medicines coming in
-Arranged medicines
-Made calls to people to remind them their medicine is ready
-Restocked food and drinks
-Checked for expiration dates
When I was at the cashier, I noticed that people are more fortunate than others. Some are rich and wealthy and probably live in a mansion. On the other side, some people barely have enough money to pay for medicine. And today, I recently noticed that one of our patients has sadly passed away. Her son was on the phone talking to the employees and she then broke the news to us. This altered me as a person: as I work longer at the pharmacy, people show up with with baggy skin and with their cane in their hand, and they pay with cash from the bottom of their 10 year-old bag that they’ve have been using for quite some time, and to think that one day one of these hard scrabbling survivors is just poof! Gone? I thought about what it means to be human, to live every day, surviving in this unkind world, and then to poof! just die? What’s the point of living if you’re just going to die at some point? Well, according to the Bible you will get resurrected by our Savior if you trust in Him and repent. And my uncle who is the manager feels the same way, for if people don’t have money for the medicine he would either let them pay it back later or depending on the price just let them have it. And my uncle connected with so many people he practically knows every patient of his. I would be at the register and he would say “Hello, Mr. O’Leary!”. I myself go to know some of the patients: I guess over time you start to build relationships as people come back because they like your pharmacy. And people come back so many times you start to build relationships. And I myself am learning how to do that – through serving this community, I met many patients and have connected with a handful of them, which caused me to become a more grateful young man who respects others.
July 24-28
-Swept the floor
-Cleaned the floor with chemicals
-Cashed out customers
-Sorted new medicines coming in
-Arranged medicines
-Made calls to people to remind them their medicine is ready
-Restocked food and drinks
-Check for expiration dates
(Basically the same thing as last week.)
This time inside of the pharmacy, me and a dad had a pretty good conversation. We were talking about my life and his sons and what we have in common.
He started it with, “So how old are you?”
“14, going into freshman year.”
“Do you play any sports?”
“Yeah I play baseball and basketball.”
“Nice! What school do you go to?”
“Milton High, but I applied to BC High and got in, but I’m not attending.”
“Oh really that’s crazy, my son goes to BC High and also plays baseball. Too bad that you aren’t.” Well, I’m very glad that I am attending Milton High because I’m with majority of my friends. Sure, BC High might have better academics and sports, but Milton High has similar features and with the addition with all my friends in my classes.
And shortly that, after he talked about golf to my uncle, he exited the store.
Now, how would you like to know how this young adult went about his day, ringing out customers?
“Hello, how are you? How can I help you today?”
“Good, pickup for ____.”
There is this wall of hanging bags sorted by the first letter of their last name. So if the last name of the patient is Watt, I would go to the W section and search for Watt. I would go on to get a paper bag and place all of the medicine into the bag and proceed to finish ringing out the customer.
“Alright, ___. Can I verify your address?”
”Yeah, it’s____.”
I go to scan it.
“Alright, your total is ___.”
The customer usually pays with plastic: they put the card in, and an awkward silence (unless my coworkers are talking amongst themselves or with the patients) descends. When the patient pays with a card, there is typically this awkward silence. And also, I’m the one waiting for the patient to do what they need to do, punching in their pin number, and waiting for the transmission of the information to the computer. In contrast, when they pay in cash, it is usually straightforward. They give me the cash, I return change, they sign the pinpad, and leave. I’m at work: I want to work, not wait, staring into space! So I prefer when they pay cash so there isn’t that awkward silence. And also I like doing the math when I’m trying to find the right amount of change.
August 2-4
Tasks are the same thing as last week.
Today we got an interaction with a patient that has been with my uncle for over 10 years and this is the first time I met her.
She first goes up to my uncle to say hi.
“Hello, pick up for Debra.”
“What is the last name Debra?”
“——–.”
I searched for the prescriptions.
“Are you related to Hung in any way?”
“Yea, I’m his nephew.”
“Oh really! That’s great. And how old are you?”
“14.”
Uncle Hung chimes in: “Yea we gotta train them young. Kids these days.”
Everyone chuckles.
“So that will be $211.58.”
“$211? I thought my insurance covered most of it?” As she hears the number come out of my mouth her face turned from a happy one to one where she got concerned that something has gone wrong. You know when a lady is serious when she pulls out the reading glasses because she goes on to pick up the prescriptions to read the price tag. When my uncle goes on to tell her the real price, she has this sigh of relief.
I went back to check and realized it was $17.58 instead of $211.
“Very sorry about that ma’am. Your total will be 18.76.”
“Ah, I’m old so I have to write down every time I spend money.”
“Oh really.”
She paid in cash so it made it easier on my end.
I gave her the change.
“Alright, everyone you all have a good one. And nice meeting you sweetie.”
“Have a good day ma’am,” chanted everyone.
August 14-17
This will be the last time I will do this, for this is the last time I will be going into the pharmacy. Alright, my time at the pharmacy was great. I got to meet great co-workers that would always crack some jokes then and there. The names of the two co-workers are Santana and Mel – Santana was more the jokester with my uncle, and on the other side Mel was considered, weird (according to Santana) as she would say the most random statements and comments.
Santana always says that he will “contact your parents” if I mess up. With that he would always beg my aunt to give him my parents’ number so he could contact them, but she refuses to and I left with him yelling, “This is nepotism” as I get away with it. I’m very grateful to have the chance to work in general, and to have amazing co-workers to work with. Hopefully I will see them sometime in the future, maybe out in the street or maybe if I go back for some reason I could pay them a visit.