3:30 in the Morning

The hard work, the dedications, of these government workers, and it didn’t matter the hour of day, they’re, hard at work just the same!  Translated…

There’s this new shop opened up in Kaohsiung recently, I’d stayed there for a few days with the manager of my shop.  One day at around 3:30 in the morn, I was awakened by a call from the local substation, turned out, that the scooter we’d parked by the side of the road was hit by a car.  What happened was that a scooter hit another scooter, then, rammed toward the scooter we had that’s parked by the side of the road.  Although it didn’t sound serious, but because the scooters weren’t our own, we’d still, gone out in the middle of the nights to check.

As we arrived, the officers were still there, we were taken back to the substation by the officers to get our statements, and, being called to the police station in the middle of the nights, that was, a first for sure.  And, at 3:30 in the morning, the station was, already, busy, and, I’m sure, that referring to the station as such, the officers won’t even let out a single chuckle, but, during the forty-minutes I’d stayed there, there were, the locals who’d come in, and there were, seven officers on duty in the substation, and every one of them seemed to have, at least, three heads, six arms, sorting through the various matters that came at them.

We were assigned to an officer who looked like he came out of the soaps, with the dark brows, the big round eyes, with a loud voice, with that scent of justice about him, and, with his looks, even if he were in show business, he would play the role of the district attorney or an officer.  At the moment he was taking our statements, something else seemed to be bothering him, the drunk man came and pulled at him, “Sir, did you take my identification card, was it you, was it you.”  at the time this was happening, he was calling his superior to report something, at the same time, he was also, answering the call of a coworker, who’d ushered him to post out the photos of the accident, etc., etc., etc., and, before him, there was the manager of my bookstore, and me, who sat before him, in our, pajamas.

As he became, frustrated, handling everything that was hitting him hard, he’d, apologized to us, “I’m sorry for the wait, there’s just, too much going on, in these late hours of the nights.”, I’d replied, “it’s no big deal for us, that’s life, the jobs we chose, we do it, best as we can.”  The officer kept his head buried to his desk, answering, there was, that genuineness, that belief of he was doing what was just and right in his voice.

Recalling how when I was younger and looked for a job, I’d always become, confused of what work entailed, other than a paycheck, turning over, over, over, and over again endlessly, what’s the meaning of all of this?  With the coming of age, the confusions were, reduced, and yet, the younger generations still inquired from time to time, “What’s the purpose of doing this?”  are we, wasting our time? 

If you have something in your mind that’s deemed meaningful for you to do, then, working hard at it, it would, be the definition of what a good job entailed, like how this officer who’s, hard at work, at 3:30 in the morning, committed to his job.

And so, this showed about work ethics, and in these jobs, you are on call 24/7, and, you still stay hard at work, no matter what hours of the day or night it is, and this takes a ton of dedication for one’s own job.