19-year-old Sierra Gage starts her day around 7 a.m., getting mail and packages ready to deliver around Forestville.
As a mail carrier for a rural area, Gage has to deal with different unexpected scenarios. The roads — sometimes one-way roads where she has to stop and wait for cars to pass by — can be difficult to drive on. Access to neighborhoods in the rural part of west county can get closed off because of fallen trees. And, like postal workers around the country, there’s the possibility of being chased by dogs.
Driving in the holiday peak season can also make things harder for Gage.
“The parcel volume is much, much heavier. It’s a lot more stressful during this time of year. Personally, I’m kind of scared of the dark. I try to get my route done before it gets dark, but that doesn’t happen because it gets dark so early,” she said on the morning of Dec. 15.
Gage has been working for the post office for 10 months. She started delivering in Windsor as a substitute carrier but shifted to working in Forsetville as a regular carrier about three weeks ago.
“I wanted to be a regular carrier to have a life. I took the chance and I got the route,” she said. Before becoming a regular, her work schedule was interfering with personal time. Now, she gets to have more time off. However, the holidays have her working more than usual.
Working for the post office was not an idea that came out of the blue for her. Gage was familiar with post office work because her family and relatives have always worked for it.
“My grandpa, my mom, my dad used to and my grandparents but they’re both retired now,” she said.
“I was comfortable around the post office. I wanted to just work and I wasn’t comfortable going anywhere else. I didn’t feel secure. But the post office is something I’ve always known. So it was easier to go this way,” Gage said.
“There’s bigger differences like spaces between mailboxes and the city. It can get really bumpy,” she said.
Gage said she enjoys getting to know the area and looking at her surroundings.
“I like the scenery on my route, I like meeting the people and just getting to know them and doing the same thing every day and having a schedule with it,” she said.
As a post office driver, she gets to regularly meet people and create relationships with them.
“Sometimes I can be the highlight of their day. Like they don’t have a friend and they see me and they can come talk to me and I’ll talk because I love talking. I feel like I can build acquaintances with the people I deliver to,” she said.
Though she usually starts work around 7 a.m., during the holiday season her days can begin at 5:30 a.m. and end at 5:30 p.m. Gage is also scheduled to work on Christmas this year. But in the end, Gage said she enjoys getting to work for the post office especially because of the relationships she is able to make.
“You build great friendships with people that you didn’t think you would. I did not think a good friend of mine would be a 30-year-old or a 60-year-old … considering I’m 19, but you do build really good friendships, and some of them will be lifelong.”
