Erica S. is a mom of two and has lived in South Carolina for seven years while working in many underappreciated jobs. First starting as a waitress in New York, she and others had to deal with rude customers on a daily and still keep smiles on their faces.  At the same time, she worked as a preschool teacher, always looking forward to seeing the kids and teaching them through fun interactive activities.

Later on, when Erica and her family moved to South Carolina, she went to work at Sullivans Island Elementary School as a lunch lady. Many kids loved her for her enthusiasm and kindness towards them, and some students here at Beckham remember her today.  She made the kids at the school more excited to go and made their day so much better, she said, ¨I used to give the kids pins when they went through the lunch line, as soon as they would get one, their faces would brighten up immediately. This is when I realized that I love jobs that include kids and making their day better would make mine too¨ (Erica S). Being a lunch lady wasn’t everything she expected it to be, it’s a hard job with minimal pay. It seems to be a fun job making kids smile and putting food on their plates, however, she recalled that it involves much more, cooking, cleaning, and counting lunches.
After she left the lunch lady position, she decided she still wanted to improve the lives of kids so she became a bus driver for the special needs kids at Moultrie Middle School. During her time as a bus driver, she always brought the kids candy and would play any kind of music they liked, often singing along to Disney’s Moana Soundtrack with the kids. Erica recalls many moments when she felt that she had impacted a kid’s life for the better, one of those moments was something she did every day, she said, ¨Connor was nonverbal and really liked airheads, I would bring airheads to him every day, this small act really changed his mindset.  He went from never wanting to go to school, to running up to give me a hug every morning, more excited than ever to get on that bus and go to school¨ (Erica S).

Last year Erica decided that she wanted to have more excitement in her life than a day-by-day school bus driver. In March she completed all of her training and passed all of her exams, allowing her to become a flight attendant for the new airline, Breeze. While working there at her current job, she still finds ways to connect with people and hear their stories.  Flight attendants can often be overlooked, a stereotypical job where people often think they just have to sit there and look pretty, however, this is not the case.  Becoming a flight attendant is a rigorous task, from memorizing the parts of the plane, knowing their functions, knowing how to handle hundreds of emergencies, and remaining kind and calm during it all.  Despite knowing almost as much as the captains do, they are still overlooked and seen as less important, when in reality the captains rely hugely on them.  One moment that she remembers from her training was a simulation of an onboard evacuation into the water, she says, “They had us go to a community pool and inflate the raft, put our life vests on, and climb onto the raft to show proficiency in a real situation.”(Erica S).

Although she does a lot of flying for the public, occasionally she takes on a position that requires much more leadership and confidence, this is called OCR (Onboard Charter Representative), they book hotels for all of the members of the crew on the flight, organize and direct the private charters, and perform important tasks such as checking the weight and balances of the plane while still acting on the normal duties of being a flight attendant.  With this job she is on flights with many sports teams which have been mostly college, however, she recently got to fly with the renowned soccer player, Lionel Messi. The company called her to tell her it was an important job and that she would be representing the company.

The most recent event in her career is substitute teaching, on her days off of the planes she plans to substitute teach, just getting her license, her first job will be here at Beckham on Thursday, April 18. These jobs all seem simple and easy at first glance, however, they have many hidden challenges and require hardworking, kind, and patient people to do the job. Working with kids as a lunch lady or bus driver can be so much more than just doing what you get paid for.  Erica encompasses this idea fully, often referred to as “the real-life Barbie” because of all of her jobs and how she does it all so seamlessly while still having fun and helping people every day.