Spencer Jones: volleyball player, routine-oriented, and a man who isn’t afraid to blow-dry his hair. We had the chance to sit down with this interesting character and he took the opportunity to tell us his life story, among other things…
Rachel: Spencer Jones, let’s start off with something simple like an explanation of your routine in the morning, well, that is, if you have a routine?
Spencer: Well, I wake up at 7 I clock in the morning, I go and do 200 push-ups, and then I shower. Around 7:30 I blow dry my hair and shave—
Rachel: Wait, do you actually blow dry your hair?
Spencer: I do, I like to have lusciously…dry hair. After my blow dry I eat my breakfast. This morning it consisted of mini-wheats with little almonds on top, a banana, and kiwi-strawberry juice.
Rachel: I know you’re notorious for your letting your mother make your lunch for you, so do you make your breakfast yourself?
Spencer: I did make my breakfast myself…I found out mini-wheats are pretty easy to make actually. The hardest part is when the milk runs out and you have to change the bag.
Rachel: So after breakfast what happens?
Spencer: The bus arrives at approximately 8:08—
Rachel: Of course, approximately 8:08.
Spencer: Do I sense sarcasm?
Rachel: …So now let’s go a little bit further back than just this morning, where are you from?
Spencer: I really can’t say I remember the hospital name, but I do remember that I was born in Chatham on October 9, 1992.
Rachel: Were you a big baby or a small baby?
Spencer: I was a big baby…11 pounds 7 ounces—actually I was a huge baby. I was supposed to be born cesarean section, but the doctors decided not to, they actually almost ended up having to break my shoulders.
Rachel: What?! How could they break a baby’s shoulders?!
Spencer: How else are you going to get ‘em out? Cause if you leave me there, then I could’ve died or caused my mom to hemorrhage. But luckily they got me out.
Rachel: So how did they end up pulling you out!?
Spencer: I’m not sure to be honest…but I do have a slight tip to my shoulders now. One is slightly higher than the other.
Rachel: We’ll call that your special characteristic. Some people are double jointed, Spencer Jones’ shoulders are uneven, hey, it’s all the same.
Spencer: Exactly!
Rachel: So you went to school in Chatham for most of your childhood, but obviously you moved to Huron County at some point in your life, when and why did the move happen?
Spencer: I went to school in Chatham until the summer of grade 7, when I made the fateful move to Huron County. My dad worked at a company in Chatham and business wasn’t exactly booming, the company was going under and he knew it. So he called up Sifto in Goderich and he went through all of these interview processes and eventually he got a job at the evaporator plant.
Rachel: Where did he end up staying?
Spencer: Sifto is in tight with the Benmiller Inn so he was able to get an awesome deal and pretty much stay there for free. He stayed here for about a year and then eventually we decided that he couldn’t keep staying there by himself so we started looking into houses.
Rachel: What house did you end up buying, and where?
Spencer: Well we found Benmiller, bought a property, and built a house there.
Rachel: So let’s fast forward now to first day of grade 8, did you take the chance to recreate yourself as a new person?
Spencer: Hell yeah I took the chance! If you knew me back in Chatham I was more of like a history nerd, that was my thing, but when I came to Colborne I definitely tried to be the cool kid.
Rachel: How did your small town classmates react to your hot-shit, cool guy from the city attitude?
Spencer: I was really openly accepted at Colborne, I pretty much became friends with everyone. We were a small, tight class, which was weird because in Chatham it was so different. I had friends there, but it was a different atmosphere. I actually remember like morphing from the new Spencer to the old Spencer every weekend because I would go back to Chatham. It was a weird time, but really, who isn’t weird at that point in their lives?
Rachel: And this brings us to now, who is the Spencer today?
Spencer: To be completely honest, and a little cheesy, I am exactly who I want to be today. I don’t want to say I don’t care because that sounds passive, but I’m a unique individual. I do what I do.
Rachel: And onto future Spencer, you’re a smart kid so I’m assuming you’re looking into university, is there anything about the future that scares you?
Spencer: Yeah, I’m looking into studying for something along the lines of a specialized doctor.
Rachel: And you’re co-oping to prepare for this right?
Spencer: I am, at the hospital in town. Right now I’m on the most boring floor of the hospital. It’s really depressing because it’s like patients with dementia or who are too old to live by themselves but there is no space in the nursing homes for them. It’s really weird to think about because they’re just staying at the hospital and essentially they’re waiting for someone to die at the home so that they can move in.
Rachel: Is there anything you’re afraid you won’t be able to handle at co-op or in your future job?
Spencer: I’m scared of dying and death, and also of being forced to put up an emotional barrier between the patient and I. That’s why I don’t think I’m as set on radiology as I was before because it’s just too cut and dry for me. But at the same time I don’t want to have to work on a bunch of cases at once because it kind of takes the purpose away from being a doctor, which is to help people feel better.
Rachel: And let’s finish up with a nice little anecdote, would you mind telling me your weirdest experience at co-op?
Spencer: The weirdest experience actually happened after co-op…
Rachel: Okay, tell me your weirdest experience after co-op?
Spencer: Well I came into the emergency room and one of the doors was shut. Of course I asked why the doors were shut and they told me that a 99 year old woman had died. Everything was a little bit awkward because someone had died in the emergency room so what was I supposed to say or do?
Rachel: Well, that’s a good question, what did you do?
Spencer: I knew that I wanted to go in and see this and be a part of it because it would prepare me for my potential future. I wasn’t going to be asked but I tried my best to put myself in a position where the Head Nurse ended up asking me to go in. To be honest I was really nervous to go in there.
Rachel: So you go through the double doors into the room and…?
Spencer: It’s not like you see in the movies. It was just weird to see her there, and we had to count her possessions. And then, we put her in a body bag, which is just a weird experience in its own. The weirdest thing that happened by far was when they said, “Goodnight” to her.
Rachel: That’s really creepy.
Spencer: It gets weirder because I went to volleyball practice that night and Zach mentioned that his grandma had died in the emergency room earlier that day. It kind of made me realize the fact that living in a small town like Goderich usually means there’s a small degree of separation from you or anyone, even someone who just died in the ER.
