After I miss my alarm, I arrive at school at 8:30. There’s a slight drizzle, and despite all of this I see a figure in a jacket picking up trash from the muddy ground.
“Hello?” I call out, to the stranger. When she turns around, it’s not a stranger at all. It’s Nikki, the school janitor. “They make you do this? Even in this weather?”
“Yep. I pick up all the trash from all around the building. But it’s not so bad,” she says smiling, “ I get to spend some time outside. It’s peaceful.” This makes me smile. We say our goodbyes, and she hopes I have a good day. I hope there isn’t much trash on the ground. Throughout the rest of my day, I can’t forget the woman picking up trash again. When I see cleaning the cafeteria floors, a group of kids walk over the freshly mopped area. How do people who do so much for the school get so little recognition from the students? Despite this, they still happily do their job, all from the shadows. They are ninjas in the night, you’ve never see them but you know they’ve been there. So here is an ode to our night ninjas, mightily fighting off the dirt and disease.
First off, we should cover who these people are and what they do. More than just being a janitor. Their hobbies and what they enjoy, because they are all still people, something I think most students don’t realize. When I asked Nikki, she exclaims that she loves horseback riding, pointing to her shirt that depicts the majestic creatures. When I was talking to our Night Ninja she mentioned what her favorite thing about ESMS was before I even asked. She remarked about her love of the students and the community, and the positive atmosphere of the building. “I try and learn everyone’s names,” says Nikki, “despite the amount of kids.” Every person mentioned how proud they are to be a janitor and the importance of their job. “It’s on us to make sure the school is clean,” Nikki tells me, “ whenever people touch things it leaves germs behind so if we don’t clean, everyone gets sick.” Nikki tells me she’s glad to be a janitor and she spreads joy because “ A clean environment is a happy environment!”
Throughout the presses of writing this, whenever I saw a janitor I talked to them, said hello, anything to let them know that I see and appreciate them. But I still saw people leaving behind messes for them to clean. “The best way students can help is to clean up things of the ground, or report messes. It’s our job to help, and we won’t be mad at you.” You don’t just have to tell a janitor though. “You can tell anyone, mrs. Julie, mrs. Casey, even an officer… it’s really a team effort.”
