Working the Register: A Humans of NIC Feature

“Flex or meal plan?”

For any student eating regularly at The Market in NIC’s Student Union Building, this is a line heard daily from Nick Gruszka. Except Gruszka doesn’t ask it like a typical cashier. There’s not an ounce of judgement in his voice, his eyes, or his actions as he swipes meal cards.

It’s a little thing. And for students who eat most of their meals in The Market, those little things add up- Gruszka, to many students, is much more than just a cashier. Alongside his coworkers in the kitchen, they make dining a lot more than just tolerable. This is Nick Gruszka’s story.

I mainly lived with my mom. We went from a storage unit, to living in a car, then we lived with some of my mom’s family.

“I was born in Sandpoint. My parents got divorced when I was six months old. My dad moved my mom, my older brother, and I into a storage unit to live while he moved my stepmom, pregnant with my little sister, into his house.

“I mainly lived with my mom. We went from a storage unit, to living in a car, then we lived with some of my mom’s family. And I would visit my dad sometimes on the weekends, sometimes in the summer, spring break.

“Then my dad moved to Utah and my mom wound up in Medford, OR. We lived there for a couple of years- I went to school there from third grade to halfway through fifth grade. Again, we would really only visit my dad during summers, spring break, and every other Christmas.

“My stepmom was abusive. She- my stepmom’s like, mentally unstable. You know? She had this weird obsession where she thought my mom was still obsessed with our dad and kept wanting to get with him. She kept thinking that our mom told my brother and I to be bad at her house. But we weren’t, we were really good.

“Oh, man. One time when I was very little- the worst abusive story. We were with our dad, and we went to visit a family friend, right? And our family friend’s kid gave my older brother some Legos. My stepmom said no, but he thought ‘Oh, I’ll just keep it in my bag, and won’t take it out till we go back to our mom’s house.’

“She went through our bags. She found the Legos and asked my brother about it. Of course, she thought he was lying, so she slapped him a couple times and sent him to the bathroom. She went into the bedroom where I was, she asked me about it. I said I didn’t know. She thought I was lying. I was sitting crisscross- she grabbed my hair and made me stand up.

“She sent me to the bathroom. And then my brother and I were both standing in the bathtub. And, for no reason- she put her hands around my neck. I don’t know what she was doing. My brother and I thought she was trying to like, strangle me. And so he slapped her off me. They got into a fistfight.

“She sent us outside. Now, this is Utah, in summer, it’s frickin’ hot. She sent us out, barefoot, on the hot driveway. The only bit of shade was right in front of the door, so we just stood in front of the door. I don’t know what she did while she was inside. Then, she opened the door, and yanked me inside. My brother started sprinting. She put her shoes on and sprinted after him. She caught up, grabbed him and brought him back to the house.

She sent me to the bathroom. And then my brother and I were both standing in the bathtub. And, for no reason- she put her hands around my neck. I don’t know what she was doing.

“We were both on the couch, just waiting for our dad to come home. And of course, she twisted the story, so she didn’t mention that she put her hands around my neck. So my dad came home, he was pissed. He grabbed his lunchbox, swung it on my brother’s face, broke the handle, and my brother got sent flying off the couch.

“He picked my brother up by the shirt and like, threw him into the bathroom and told him to ‘wash up.’ And that’s really why we don’t want to go to our dad’s house. My brother got a black eye, so they made him wear sunglasses in public to cover it up. And they were like, ‘if anyone asks, just say a baseball got thrown in your eye.’

“Another thing my stepmom did, she had a desire for her kids to be better than us. Whenever we were in public, people would say my brother and I were well-behaved, but her kids were like, loud and crazy. And so whenever her kids were bad, they would blame it on my brother and I, and my stepmom would just believe them, and she’d abuse us. She thought we did it and our mom told us to be bad.

“That went on for a couple of years. They both moved back to Idaho. We moved to Coeur d’Alene, my dad moved up to Bonners [Ferry]. I finished fifth grade in the Post Falls school district before going to the Coeur d’Alene school district. I went to Woodland Middle School and Lake City High School.

They were like, ‘if anyone asks, just say a baseball got thrown in your eye.’

“When my dad moved up here, we did the weekend thing again because it’s more doable. Then, he moved to New Hampshire a couple of years ago. That was a long ways away. And when my mom got pregnant with my little sister, my brother and I refused to go to our dad’s because we were sick of getting treated like garbage. My dad tried to sue our mom because he thought it was her fault, even though she was pregnant and couldn’t physically make us.

“I finished high school. My dad has come out to see us a couple times, and we don’t, like, completely avoid him. But we don’t want to stay there for the whole summer.

“I live with my mom right now. She doesn’t abuse me; she just makes me help around the house a lot. I help pay rent- she can’t really afford it right now. I live with my stepdad, too. She got married again, and I have a little brother and little sister with my mom.

“Now I’m here. Trying to save up money, trying to move out, and start what I want to do with my life.”