Hello there! My name is Hannah Freudenthaler and I will tell you a little about me. My pronouns are she/they, I’m extremely introverted and still learning how to adult. I’ve decided to come back to school after this cursed year off because honestly, I don’t want to be stuck with the job I have and I want to do things that I actually enjoy. As a grocery store deli worker throughout this entire pandemic, I have seen people at their worst over not being able to get roast beef sliced and co-workers at their best when we were short-handed and overwhelmed. It’s rather surprising to me that sometimes customers can forget that the people serving them are actual people, with feelings, and we can’t control when we get more ham in stock or the fact that something was discontinued or we don’t do custom made sandwiches any more – go to Subway if it’s that upsetting. I will say that some people have been super understanding in the fact that we were and still are understaffed; I had a really nice lady waiting about ten minutes for me to be able to help her get some salads, and she and the customer next to her gave me a round of applause for running back and forth across the department helping people all by myself since I couldn’t accept her money.

I spent a week and a half in Hawaii over the summer and it was super fun! I will say that if you ever get the chance to visit Kauai, Backcountry Adventures rafting is a must! They take you on a drive over private property which offers up wonderful views, and to the river you will be rafting on that is the water supply for the neighboring town of Kapa’a. You will then take a splash in some refreshing water and go through five tunnels that were hand dug by sugar cane plantation workers back when that was Hawaii’s main source of income. Fun fact about Kauai, it is home to hundreds of thousands of feral chickens. Apparently, there were hurricanes in the ’80s and ’90s that set loose domesticated fowl into the forest with the wildfowl. Now you can’t go more than a few minutes without seeing one of these feathered creatures walking down the road since they have no natural predators on the island besides people and cars. Kauai is called the Garden Island because it has a much denser forest than any other island, but I think a name change may be in its future.