It was amateur hour last week on East and West campuses. Parents eager to dump their kids, while the youngins were rushing to bid their parents adieu for a year of higher learning and debauchery. All rushed to empty the car, while ignoring proper lifting techniques. Throughout the day, parents and students alike risked unnecessary injuries and soreness that could result in a visit to the chiropractor, or even worse, an orthopedic surgeon.
I cannot stress how important it is to lift with the legs. When carrying a large box over a long distance you may want to put it on your back with one hand below and the other on the side. Couches and futons should be held at an angle, so the back and bottom each rest in one hand. While holding an item in tandem, one person should walk backwards. Do not walk forward with your hands behind you while grasping an object behind you.
Please withhold the countless "Thank you" e-mails for this brief tutorial. I don't deserve them. I'm simply a part-time mover, almost an apprentice, with Hassett Air Express based in Elmhurst, Ill. Though the company relegated itself to second-tier corporate status--as Ireland did with world standing--by choosing green, white and orange as their colors, it exposed me to a new world entirely foreign to Duke. There I learned to lift and converse with less than erudite men, while gaining a better understanding of the manual laborers' work ethic.
Since sophomore year in high school, I've packed magazines, delivered packages, moved entire families and transferred corporations around the Chicagoland area and ultimately realized that manual labor stinks, but it builds character--the kind that many Duke students lack. Few activities inspire success in academically enabled fields offered by Duke than working at a job involving almost non-stop monotonous movement for 10 to 12 hours a day tediously lifting, pushing and walking. The tasks seem simple enough, but require skill and experience. Otherwise, you're out of luck with a pulled muscle or broken bone and crappy health insurance that discourages a visit to the doctor.
Yet, beyond these downsides and risks, working for a moving company is really a fantastic experience. Most notably, I don't need to waste time in a weight room to acquire my Herculian size. Work also introduced me to more Hot Rod and computer magazines than I thought existed when I started shipping them. I never realized how many fertility books existed until I picked up a 24-gallon tub full of them while moving a lovely couple from St. Charles, Illinois. This very same box taught me that because it fits, does not mean it should be packed: Books are heavy.
Proudly, I know more about semi-trucks--those large vehicles that port freight across country--than most Duke students. Kenworth's are some of the fastest on the road as a result of the large number of gears. Freightliners, while slower than Macks have superior transmissions. Internationals are Freightliners with bad transmissions. Volvos are possibly the best, not simply because they are Swedish. As for Peterbilts, I'm clueless. There's a wealth of factual information provided by working with a moving and shipping company that PoliSci, Chem and Romance Language courses just cannot provide.
Moving from Duke to white-collar jobs, as most of us will, does not allow exposure to the type of people that mostly populate this country. Duke grads don't often work with the average worker, who puts in a solid days work for a decent wage to support his family and his bar tab. Many attend Duke in order to govern and employ people we do not begin to understand. Wage earners are not manual laborers because they are lazy. Some are rather intelligent, who did not receive opportunities granted to us.
Somedays I wonder how others are still alive. Regardless, I've met few students at Duke who work as hard as the moving crews at Hassett. Which makes it all the more tragic when talent is wasted here, while people struggle every day wishing they were a bit smarter to pull themselves into a better job with greater financial and health benefits. Every day, someone who calls me "Duke boy," tells me not to mess up--they also have other choice nicknames for me, including "Screech." We have a very poor conception of laborers from the comfort of our dorm rooms. Every day we experience countless services and for the most part never extend genuine gratitude or understanding to those who provide them.
I'd like to think my days on moving trucks and in warehouses have extended my appreciation of laborers, but I don't know. Spending days working with Vietnam veterans granted an appreciation of the underlying feelings still resting in the hearts of many survivors. When you're lifting file cabinets with a guy who spells "buffet"--"bufa" and at 64 still works only for Hooters, spending money is a unique experience to say the least. While moving or shipping, marking things "Fragile" only draws the joke, "It must be from Italy," not special handling; we don't get paid enough to care if it's easily broken. However, we'll do our best to get done with the move as quickly as possible in order to beat rush hour.
The movers' sometimes lackadaisical attitude towards their cargo is equaled often by our under-appreciation of labor everywhere. Roughly nine months from now, parents will return to empty dorm rooms. It will have been a year of academic learning, with a slight increase in social knowledge. To attain more of the latter, try monotonous, mind-boring, backbreaking employment. It's not exciting, it probably won't immediately build your career, but it will advance your social skills (in the "lower" societal circles), give you a greater realization of the world than Duke can offer (even beyond study abroad). There's also the strong possibility that come moving time you won't be sore.
Kevin Ogorzalek is a Trinity senior. His column appears every other week.
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