Nicholas is the guy who refills the vending machines with your favorite snacks!  You may see him doing just walking around with his cart to check and fill vending machines, but many students do not go out of their way to get to know him. As it turns out, the 16 vending machines around the school frequently need to be serviced and filled, as many students buy snacks daily, and it is Nicholas’s job to fill them.  It turns out there is a lot more to it than just “filling” them. Nicholas’s main job is to refill the vending machines yes, but along with that, he also must check and manage the vending machines, their prices, their money and their snacks, as he says, “It may just sound like a simple task, just walking around with the cart and filling them, but there’s a little bit more to that, having to make sure the machines work and that they have healthy snacks.”  For the most part, Nicholas’s whole responsibility is to manage and keep the vending machines working.

Nicholas said he has had a few bad experiences with students during his year and three months at Sunlake Highschool. As he is walking around people will often make comments to him such as, “Can I buy something off of you directly?” or, “Give me something for free,” which he does not like. He explains that, “I don’t take it to heart, but it’s like you already know you can’t ask that.” To second his bad experiences, he has also had students try and tease him by taking things from his cart. “Somebody took something from my cart, but gave it right back because I saw him.” Although he can’t directly punish someone via a referral, he states that CCTV catches almost everything that happens in this school.  If someone ever did something he can go to the principle or another administrator for them to receive consequences.

Although his job as staff at Sunlake can cause people to avoid or not get to know him, if they do they realize he’s a very nice guy with lots of hobbies and a great personal life. Nicholas loves video games, as some of his favorites are BioShock, Pokémon and Overwatch, with him having many tattoos around those games and stating, “I play everything, from Fortnite to Nintendo, PlayStation, but I also love BioShock and Overwatch, playing Overwatch since it came out in beta. I Also like games that are competitive, and let you see your progress over time.”

Overall, Nicholas is an amazing guy who is nice and funny with good hobbies and responsibilities, with managing the vending machines, and even helping out in the back kitchen sometimes in the cafeteria. Maybe when you see him in the hallways you can introduce yourself, or maybe talk to him a little bit, now that you have gotten to know Nicholas, the guy who manages your snacks.