Things I've Learned from Working

 

I was in a deep discussion the other day with one of my friends around what our worst and best jobs were. We thought deeply about what makes a good job a good one and a bad job a bad one.

All the normal characters were brought out-- a bad job? Well that would entail that you had at least one weird coworker who was always strangely (or outrightly) inappropriately sexual in the workplace, or a boss that tried to use the common approach of feedback ("Hey! Let's grab coffee, I want to hear about how you think that went") to be a truly awful person ("Is that soy? Did you order that with soy?", "Yes, I'm lactose intolerant...", "But soy is so fattening! Do you really think you need that right now?").But we soon realized that it was actually much easier to pinpoint what our favorite (best) job was then our worst ones, because even our worst ones taught us something about this crazy life we live. So I'm not going to comment any further on which one is my favorite or least favorite, but here's my list of things I've learned from each of my jobs:

1. "Street Marketer". Nope, this isn't code for "took her clothes off for change", though, in California that's entirely a possibility. No, what this meant was that, for a summer, I was that annoying person that snuck around car parking lots and put little flyers on your window for when you came back. The flyers advertised a pizza place on Main Street in Huntington Beach that you probably would've gone to anyway. But hey, it paid $20/hour, and that was a lot when you're 13! Things I learned:
• Car alarms are surprisingly sensitive, particularly around the windshield area. You're actually much more effective if you tuck it into the window on the drivers side because then i won't slip down and they'll see it as they get into the car
• You might think that parking your car in a garage might give you a little added safety, since there's a person sitting there taking money and watching people come in and out of the garage. That person is usually some high schooler who couldn't give less of a crap about someone coming in and touching your car. I'm sure it helped because I was a 13 year old girl in a jean mini, but don't hold your breath that I couldn't grow up into a 27 year old miscreant in a jean mini
2. Basketball Coach. This one is kind of self explanatory, except that it was for 9-11 year old girls. 
• This age group is confusing as hell. They're beginning to understand that they are supposed to be holy terrors in about a year or so, but they're figuring out (slowly) how far they can push their boundaries without getting in trouble just yet. Best bet is to treat them like you would a younger sibling
• This age group also hasn't figured out yet that sports are good! They're cool! They keep you in shape throughout your high school (and if you're lucky) college years and beyond! The answer to this misconception is to make them run suicides
3. Secretary and Counselor for the Boys and Girls Club. This was kind of awesome. Check in the kids, answer the  phones and then go help them with their homework or play kickball. 
• I got a little metal stool that I could sit on behind the desk, which changed my life. Would highly recommend this as sometimes the parents just want to chat when they pick up and drop off their kids
• You get sick a lot more when you're around this many children of all different age groups. Because. Well, children are just walking biohazards really. You also develop a favorite age group (mine are the 5-6 year olds because they still think you're cool and they still love you and will listen to you)
• You realize that the idea of having children is terrifying. So this is the perfect job for a teenager
4. Student Worker at the Local Cafe on Campus. This was kind of awesome because, well, free food that wasn't cafeteria food. And, it was right across the street from my dorm
•  Uh free food? Awesome. Making random new types of food with the given ingredients? Awesome.
• Not awesome was the mandatory over night shifts we had to take a few times a semester and cleaning up puke during this overnight shifts because it always happened on the weekends
5. Summer RA. For girls dorms. For sports camps, alumni reunions and whatever else happened on campus
• Adults, when put into dorms, turn back into students
• Young girls, when at sports camp and away from their parents, turn into squealing psychos (seriously, they terrorize each other)
• The best type of people to RA are nuns and priests that are here for what I assume are nun and priest conferences

 Then I graduated and got a "real job". *sigh* I guess you can't have it all....