Bay Area post offices were packed Wednesday with people trying to meet holiday shipping deadlines. The increased number of packages sent by mail increases the workload for local postal employees.
Nahima Aguiniga works six days a week as a mail carrier for the USPS in San Jose. She has worked in the postal service for the past seven years.
“My route has 513 homes,” Aguiniga told CBS News Bay Area. “I average about 14 miles on my route alone.”
She said it can be physically demanding to walk so much every day, but she knows she serves a purpose.
“It’s part of the job, just like any other job. You know, it gets tiring after a while, but you do it because at the end of the day you get satisfaction out of it,” she said.
A USPS spokesperson said Aguiniga averages at least 1,000 package deliveries each week. Additionally, the Berryessa Post Office in San Jose processed 30,000 packages last week and this week alone.
“I’m the last stop where the Christmas presents go. So I have to make sure I deliver them. Because like it or not, there’s that Christmas present… and I have to be the one to deliver it,” Aguiniga said.
Before she started working in the postal service, Aguiniga did something completely different. She worked in the Intel cafeteria.
“I worked there for about five years before I decided to take the risk of working for the Postal Service. It was the best decision I made,” she said.
Residents said Aguiniga has always taken care of everyone and now call her a lifelong friend.
“When she didn’t see my father for a long time because he was sick, she asked and was worried about him. Because that’s it, she knows us and she cares about us,” San Jose resident Mercedes Tan told CBS News. Bay area.
“It’s nice to hear that what you’re doing is important to certain people you know and the impact you’re making,” Aguiniga said. “They know my son is in the military, and my daughter and stuff like that. So they know when I’m not there. They know when I’m here.’
For Aguiniga it is so much more than just delivering mail.
“Sometimes you think you know, you just walk through the streets and people don’t notice you? But clearly they do,” she said.
She added that she is grateful to be cared for by the friends she has made along the way in the San Jose neighborhood.
