My Classmates Mocked Me for Being a Garbage Collector’s Son – on Graduation Day, I Said Something They’ll Never Forget

My Classmates Mocked Me for Being a Garbage Collector’s Son – on Graduation Day, I Said Something They’ll Never Forget

By the time I turned eighteen, I could recognize my life by the smell alone. Diesel. Bleach. Old food fermenting in black plastic bags. That’s what my childhood smelled like. I’m Liam, and for as long as I can remember, my world has revolved around a woman in a reflective vest climbing onto the back of a garbage truck at 4 a.m. My mom didn’t dream of that life. She wanted to wear scrubs, not steel-toed boots. She was in nursing school once upon …