Rebecca has been looking for work for the past 10 days or
so. Newly graduated, newly unemployed, uncertain of an educational track; I’ve
been trying to help where I can and trying very hard not to ask “What do you
want to do?” There is reluctance in me to push her to decide what she wants to
be when she grows up. I’m not sure at 19 anybody truly knows the truth of what they want to be. They know what they could be, what they should want to be, they know what other people expect they will be but I certainly don’t want her to
feel pressured into choosing something just to feel like she’s not wandering.
In fact I think a little creative wandering is good for the soul and can lead
you to some pretty fantastic places as long as your belly stays full.
Helping Rebecca over the past week has led me on a bit of an
employment inventory of my own working life… I was 19 once too and didn’t know
what I wanted to be when I grew up.
I ended up being….
A waitress, a telemarketer (for a day –they paid me it
counts—but I was bad….very bad) an office janitor and a lawn cutter. I’ve worked in a deli, a bakery, a gas
station, a convenience store and a video rental outlet—okay it was all the same
place but I did all of the jobs at some point in my tenure. There was a time
when I was a housekeeper—I kid you not. For a while I worked in home décor
following my formal post-secondary schooling in interior design; I mixed paints
and helped people create looks and co-ordinate colours. Technically I knew what
to do but I lacked that certain natural flair or rather ‘care’ about posh-ness
and trends. I was better at the conceptualization and understanding of building
so I put in a few years as a draftsperson and morphed my way into
administrating for construction sites/crews. I could have been good at it but
the industry tanked and I needed to eat. So I worked in a coffee shop; I loved
that job and I was very happy except for the affording only to eat peanut
butter sandwiches part. I left to a series of odd and ordinary jobs in pursuit
of better pay and a happier mortgage company. I’ve been a receptionist, a data
entry clerk, a press scheduler and a proof-reader—(which gave me ulcers and a
nervous twitch). I was much better at making cakes and catering, I still had
ulcers but I could show up to my kitchen in a ponytail and shorts and drink
wine while I worked. It was slightly
less messy than the years I put in doing home daycare but not as much fun as
the short stint decorating for weddings. Along the way to here I’ve held down a
job as a grocery cashier and a store administrator. I’ve been a burger flipper
at McDonalds and tried my hand at a home marketing fad (or two) selling Avon,
giftwrap, milkshakes and tea. Once, I swear, I worked in a little booth and sold
not so precious gold chain jewellery by the inch—that was not the worst job I
ever had. The worst job I ever held was in Human Resources management—the
commute was so not worth the office window and the piles of paper. I’m pretty
sure that I delivered newspapers once because I break out in a sweat every time
my son suggests getting a route (but that may have been a dream). Most recently
I’ve dipped into the water of insurance and investments, running
administration, talking to the bereaved, tracking down payments and moving
money around for people who spend what I earn on Sunday brunch and golf. Four years
in and I’m getting itchy.
I’ve worked for good guys and bad guys, bozos and bimbos,
flakes and the fabulous. I’ve done nights, days, evenings weekends, and weeks
on end. I’ve been hired, fired, canned and laid-off, promoted and transferred
and I’ve never stayed anywhere that didn’t make me happy. I started making my list and it made me laugh,
I am an employment gypsy!
It brought to mind a most wonderful J.R.R. Tolkien quote:
Some of us just like taking a little more time to discover
our path.
The trick is travelling with people patient enough to let
you ramble. I've been lucky in this regard and I'm determined that Rebecca will be too.
For the record I’m not so much wandering anymore as I am
heading towards a destination…
Let me know if you see this in the want ads would you please.
Love
M
"Support a wander"
