Rockin’ the Bakken: Summer in a North Dakota Boom Town

My hometown of Dickinson, North Dakota is located at the southernmost part of the Bakken oil formation, which is one of the largest shale oil formations in the United States. Thousands of workers have flooded this area in western North Dakota where I live, each hoping to grab his own small piece of the wealth that thousands of new oil wells have created. This oil activity has caused a statewide economic boom in North Dakota and the state currently has a $2 billion budget surplus, more jobs than employees can fill, and one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. Not everything has been perfect because there is a severe housing shortage and prices for food have increased greatly, but all in all, North Dakota is doing quite well.
I spent my summer working at Carquest Auto Parts as a delivery driver. It was the perfect summer job for me because I got to indulge in my love of cars and driving by spending my days going around town in a Chevrolet Colorado pickup where I got to see what the local mechanics were working on. I can honestly say I had fun at work this summer even though things often felt a little hectic because my manager could never find enough help.
Delivering car parts may not have been the most glamorous or exciting way to spend my time, but I am proud of how I spent my summer because I made an important contribution to the economic success of my hometown. I looked at my job this way: by delivering the necessary parts, I helped local mechanics repair the vehicles that allowed other people to perform their own jobs. For three months this summer I had the privilege to work with normal hardworking people, and they taught me important lessons that I don’t think I could’ve learned at school.
At Harvard we get to study and interact with some of the best and brightest students and professors in the world, but I think this sometimes causes us to take our fellow citizens who perform less glamorous jobs for granted. Doing something as simple as mowing the grass in the Yard or repairing a crumbling Cambridge sidewalk may not seem as important as publishing an article in a journal or doing scientific research, but in many ways it is essential to our collective well-being and standard of living. What I learned this summer is this: wherever our futures take us, whether it is into business, public service, academia, or some other profession, we must not forget our fellow citizens. No matter how menial a job may seem, it is important that someone does it and cares enough to do it well.