My leaf of faith or LEAP of faith was when I started working at a trampoline park in the fall of 2017. I was 16 years old and it was my first real job compared to babysitting and working with family. The hiring process was easy, my interview went well. I was hired as a party host and court monitor at a new trampoline park that was opening. My first shift was on Black Friday from 6 pm to 11 pm. I knew it was going to be a wild ride when I showed up to red flashing lights and not being able to go through the front door of the building. The building was at max capacity and some kid broke his leg. Welcome to the trampoline park world. I could go on and on about stories and events that happened while I was working. I’ve decided I want to share the most surprising stories so here are my top weirdest and craziest stories while working at a trampoline park.
The one story I always tell people is the whistle story. I was working as a court monitor this day. As a court monitor, you are constantly blowing your whistle so you can grab kids’ attention to slow down or remind them of the rules again. As I was standing and watching children bounce and fall all over the place, I saw a child come up to me. He looks like he is about to ask me a question when all of a sudden he grabs my whistle (which is on a rope around my neck) AND BLOWS ON IT. I had no words. What do you even say in that situation? I honestly don’t even remember what I did but I remember being pissed because I had to go buy a new whistle because I don’t want that little kid’s nasty germs. Always expect the unexpected.
I have never seen so many injuries as I did when I used to work at a trampoline park. Some of my shifts were purely cleaning up the blood that has been tracked all over the trampolines. There were bloody noses all the time. The park is fairly large and if a kid gets a bloody nose on one far side of the park, they are going to leave a trail of blood across the park. Knowing all that, the blood is everywhere and more kids start to step in it and track it all over the place. This is when we would get the bleach and spray it all over the place while another team member followed the person spraying with a mop.
I enjoyed the job, I did. There was one thing worse than the blood, broken bones, and snotty little kids…Kidz Bop. On Fridays and Saturdays there is usually good music playing but on Sundays…watch out. I worked every Sunday because it was the one day I knew I’d be able to work with my schedule during high school. I kid you not, the songs get engraved into your brain. It is the same songs that were being played, over and over again. The lyrics were always so bad. I could not listen to these songs that were originally bangers. The worst was when Kidz Bop changes the lyrics because they are sexual or inappropriate, and I am now listening to kids sing different parts instead. I can not sugarcoat it, Sundays were the death of me. I will always remember the song, “That’s What I Like” by Bruno Mars playing (the Kidz bop version). Bruno Mars is already nauseating to me on most days but changing the lyrics from “Strawberry Champagne all night” to “strawberry Milkshakes all night” was the last straw for me ever listening to Bruno Mars ever again.
Of course, there are the good days when kids actually respected you and thought you were cool. There are a lot of kids that come so often that we were on a first-name basis and enjoyed each other’s presence. I loved when it was slow, we could actually play games with the kids and help them out a lot more. Not every day was that good though. Every day was a new experience. I was either going to be harassed by little boys or hit in the face by a dodgeball. The amount of 11-year-olds that bullied me is insane. It is not like I can really do anything back, I am working.
The best part of the job was cleaning, weird right? After we closed and everyone left, we would turn on music and bounce from trampoline to trampoline. Half of us had a gallon of bleach that we would spray all over the trampolines and the other half would have mops. We would trail along after each other until the whole park was bleached and mopped. I hated being on foam pit duty, I would never get it because I would be way too slow at it and no one wanted that. Someone would have to grab every single cube and throw it to another section so they could bleach the bottom of the foam pits and also grab anything that fell below. Some days there were phones, watches, wallets, and jewelry in there. We were not allowed to search for someone’s belongings until after hours. So many people lost items. I found a wad of cash all rubber banded in the foam pit. I did what was morally correct and gave it to my manager and I don’t think anyone ever claimed the cash was theirs…smh. Overall working at a trampoline park at 16 years old was surely something. I am glad I worked there and had a fun first job experience.
