Doesn’t the featured photo look like a Hershey Kiss? Well it’s supposed to. This structure is at the plant right across the street from the Hershey Chocolate factory. The plant where this is located is the wastewater treatment plant.
What’s inside? Technically it’s poop, technically it’s not. The building is called a digester and it is the final stop for wastewater solids – aka your poop in a waste treatment plant. However, at this point in the process, your poop is not really poop anymore. The best way to describe it is bug poop. The bugs, as they call the bacteria and life in the wastewater, break down or better known as reduce your poop by eating. The end result is called biosolids.
The outside container certainly doesn’t reflect what’s on the inside.
This week was filled with a bunch of fun for me. I got to travel for my job, and then they paid me to stand around and talk to people. I attended a conference at the Hershey Conference Center in Pennsylvania. From the featured photo and introduction of this post, you can tell I also went on a tour of the wastewater plant just down the road. Chocolate was not the topic at the conference, but it was definitely on the menu.
So was racing.
I love a good race. However, sometimes you don’t even have a chance to win.
For fun, these two guys brought a wooden race track just for racing Hot Wheels cars. It’s an opportunity for fun in the Exhibit Hall. My company was one of two sponsors of the race. The monetary support of the event is used as contribution to the organization that put on the conference.
When I found out about the race and was able to sponsor, I knew what I needed to do. I needed to ask my son for his fastest Hot Wheels car. Years ago, my youngest son took every car he had and raced them down the track to find his fastest car. However, I learned many years ago, as a vendor at a conference, I never participate in any event that prizes are awarded. The conference is for all, but the primary focus is solutions for the end user not the vendors. Therefore, I view my role at a conference and its events as support for the end users. All this meaning, I am not there to win something. I am there to support the end users and the organization and its mission.
Because I am competitive and well…I am good at finding end arounds to even my own internal rules – lol, I gave my son’s fastest car to a guy I knew at the conference. He won heat 3 of 8 races with my son’s car. That meant my friend made the final race. At the final race, my friend lined his car up early exactly where he wanted it and everything was set to go. Just before the race was about to start, this other racer who’s car was already set on the track, walked up to the track and started moving all the cars around. It was totally a Where’s The Fish Moment!
The results of the final race was my son’s car coming out of the gate first and being crashed into by the car that the other racer guy moved just before the race started. Second place is where it landed. We didn’t have a chance to win because someone tried to control the outcome.
Character is revealed when we stop judging by appearances and start paying attention to what is happening beneath the surface.
A building that looks like a chocolate Hershey Kiss contains the final stage of waste treatment. A race that looked competitive was influenced by someone’s desire to control the result. One story reminds us that transformation happens out of sight. The other reminds us that integrity is tested when no one is watching.
At Hershey, I learned two important lessons. First, don’t judge a giant chocolate kiss by its cover—it might actually be a poop processor. Second, don’t assume the fastest car wins the race. Sometimes the race is affected by things happening beneath the surface.
Whether it’s wastewater treatment or Hot Wheels racing, appearances don’t always tell the whole story. Sometimes what’s hidden is where the real action is taking place.
Have a FUN rest of FRIDAY! – Yes I know half the day is over already. Have a great weekend as you LOOK deeper inside.