Nick Cyr of Winslow stands Monday outside the Goodwill store in downtown Waterville, where he got his first full-time job about two months ago. He says he loves it. “We get a lot of regular customers. They’re all really nice — I like all of them.” Amy Calder/Morning Sentinel

There’s a lot to be said about being happy in a job.

Nick Cyr is getting his first taste of it, and he is thrilled.

I met Cyr and his aunt Monday as they were sitting on the pavement outside the Goodwill store on The Concourse in downtown Waterville, waiting for a ride to Cyr’s home in Winslow.

It was 34 degrees — a heat wave compared to the sub-zero and single-digit temperatures we have experienced lately — but the wind was bitter cold.

I approached the pair, who were huddled against the outside wall of Goodwill, paper bags next to them overflowing with clothes and multicolored yarn. Customers filtered in and out of the busy store.

“I work here,” Cyr, 18, said. “I came on my day off to shop. We’re just waiting for a ride home.”

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He said he got the job at Goodwill about two months ago and loves it. During his 40-hour work week, he does a little of everything — organizing, helping take in donations people bring to the side door, working the cash register. Mostly, he is a cashier, he said.

“It’s my first full-time job,” he said. “It’s relatively easy and it pays pretty good. We get a lot of regular customers. They’re all really nice — I like all of them. My co-workers are good, too, and my boss is nice.”

His aunt, Alyssa (she didn’t want to give her last name), said she and Cyr always have been very close. She said he is a good person and has a great personality.

A 2024 graduate of Winslow High School, Cyr, an upbeat person with a friendly smile, said he is glad to be doing what he is doing and didn’t have grand aspirations as a youngster. His needs and wants are simple.

“I knew for a while I didn’t want to go to college,” he said. “I didn’t have a plan.”

Asked where he thinks he will be in five years, or where he’d like to be, Cyr appeared confident.

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“I’ll probably be here,” he said, nodding to the store behind him. “I really like it here.”

Cyr said he plays guitar but doesn’t sing, although he sang a lot as a child. He also likes to crochet, and that’s what he bought the yarn for, he said.

“I do hats, sweaters, that kind of stuff. I’ve been doing it three or four years.”

Alyssa, 23, said she bought clothes at Goodwill. She pulled an orange-striped Tigger backpack from her bag and smiled.

“She’s like an older sister to me,” Cyr said. “My partner in crime.”

Their ride pulled up to the curb, just as I was asking them what they think of the world and all that is happening, both here and abroad.

Cyr pondered the question as he collected his things and headed for the car.

“I do see things getting better,” he said. “I try to keep really optimistic.”

Amy Calder has been a Morning Sentinel reporter 36 years. Her columns appear here Saturdays. She is the author of the book, “Comfort is an Old Barn,” a collection of her curated columns, published in 2023 by Islandport Press. She may be reached at acalder@centralmaine.com. For previous Reporting Aside columns, go to CentralMaine.com.

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