Mid-South South Synergy monitors and maintains 2,781 miles of line. That’s about the distance from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles. A pretty amazing statistic especially when you consider the density of the cooperatives poles is 8 ¼ meters per mile. You can imagine it’s a lot of work maintaining all of these lines.
It’s true. Hard work is often not easy. And when you see the dedication of Mid-South Synergy staff working holidays and weekends during bad power outages, it’s often inspiring. It makes many wonder and admire why anyone would work so hard in their field. The truth is Mid-South staff understands one of the best kept secrets of life. Hard work delivers personal contentment.
As a Mid-South employee, it reminds me of the first time I learned the true value of hard work. It was back in 1993 and I was given the task to make a tomato garden. For an adolescent in their early teens, the idea of spending a Saturday digging up dirt, planting seeds, and creating a rock bed is about as unattractive an offer gets - especially when a posse of Nintendo games are beckoning inside.
But with the grave possibility that my video games might go on an extended vacation if I didn’t contribute convinced me to be a willing volunteer.
Making a tomato garden is not as easy as it sounds. To make the giant red fruit often mistaken for a vegetable grow, you’ve got to set a good foundation of soil. That means digging out weeds from the ground, mixing the soil with nutrients, and fertilizing the entire area. It helps to build some type of boundary such as a rock bed around the plants so grass and weeds don’t overtake your project. To do it right, it takes some attention and careful planning.
After all this planting preparation, the tomato is like any other fruit. You need to give it some tender loving care. For weeks, watering, monitoring, inspecting is all part of the job. And like any infant life form, the tomato needs to be catered to. Because once those first red buds of plump deliciousness come to life, rest assured the insect community wants a cut.
The whole process, though seemingly easy now, wore me out at thirteen. It was challenging and tedious. But when I plucked the first large round tomato from my garden, I experienced a contentment that has stayed with me to this day. An enormous sense of pride swelled in me as I tasted my first tomato that grew out of one dedicated Saturday. Perfection! All the hard work paid off and it was one of the best feelings I ever experienced.
It’s funny as I look back I can’t tell you what else I did that summer - not even the titles of my once precious video games. But I can remember in detail the whole process of working hard and seeing something fostered grow to life. I learned that year hard work can bring great contentment.
And that feeling is one of the reasons I believe Mid-South Synergy crews are so dedicated. Their drive comes from knowing the value of delievering you reliable, affordable electricity.
Whether it’s the member service representative who has a heavy call volume or the lineman laboring in the sun, it feels good to work hard. And that’s why we do it.