Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Professional Crisis

Lately I have been doing some serious soul-searching about my chosen career, and wondering whether or not it's normal to feel like an idiot in your job 75% of the time. Is that normal? Is that healthy? All my life I have felt like teaching was my special calling. And now that I am doing it, it is horrifying to realize that sometimes I HATE IT. For a long time now, I have been envying the pallet stackers at Costco: their job is so simple, so unemotional. I need a career overhaul but don't want to go back to school. Some careers I have been considering include Costco pallet stacker, writer, designer, nurse, Jeopardy question asker (not writer, just asker), anchor woman for Eye Witness News, and clothing tester for Banana Republic.

Now, they usually tend to give nursing and designing jobs to those who actually went to school specifically for the position. And to ask Jeopardy questions, or be an acnhor woman, I think you have to actually be IN broadcasting. So my options are to stack pallets or work for Banana Republic. But they probably only allow thin models to test their clothes. And I think I'd probably wreck my mini-forklift at Costco. Since I am already fulfilling my dream of www publishing, I am at a loss. So I wrote a list of things I like about my job to cheer me up. Here it is:

Things about my job that really stoke my fire:
1. The outfits: suits, skirts, high heels, tweed florets.
2. The hours: and because my heart is never in it and I'm lazy, the hours are much fewer than you might imagine.
3. Picking out just the right video clip to show my students (can backfire when technology fails me, like it did last week to my shame).
4. Students who love me: this only happened once. Most of them usually just ask questions like "why are you not as fun as my roommate's English teacher?
5. Checking my box in the English Department work room.
6. Throwing my weight around at the Writing Center.
7. Blog fodder
8. Buying school supplies
9. Feeling like I never really left school, but not having homework anymore.
10. Reading (appropriate) excerpts from David Sedaris to my students.

That SOULD have made me feel better. But maybe some ice cream will instead? Think I'll check out Ben & Jerry's latest--I heard about it from Marcy.

7 comments:

  1. Now, by Jeopardy Question Asker, do you mean Alex's job? Because he needs to retire if any fake Accent SOB ever did. My dream is to be one of the clues crew. They recently were accepting audition tapes for a new member, but I chickened out and didn't do it. I mean, they already have a young blonde so I probably wouldn't have gotten the part anyway. Think of the team we could be though, you in the studio in your heels, tights and tweed, me on location reading clues and having adventures. ahhh the on screen jokes there would be. It would be like Le Glorie revisited.

    I have also always dreamed of Vanna's job, as well as the job of naming makeup, specifically lipsticks and nail polishes.

    Sorry about your job crisis. I will be there with my notecards asap.

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  2. What I think I meant was clues crew, but I forgot the term. You clearly know a lot more about it than I do. We COULD be a rockin' team, if ever there was one. Can't wait to have you visit next weekend and bring some notecards into my life.

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  3. Carrie Ann, I just can't believe there is such a thing as the Woman of Leisure Desk Calendar and I don't own it! How is that possible? I am the ultimate woman of leisure. I have made it an art. I need to get me some of that pronto.

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  4. #7, 8 and 9 are my favorites. "If I knew who you were I would send you a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils." I LOVE school and office supplies!!

    I miss school sometimes (it has been over 6 years!), but then I remember how I always procrastinated and every night was filled with dread to get that homework done. It must be much more satisfying assigning the homework!

    My degree is in teaching (art), but I wasn't even through with my internship at Orem Jr. High before I realized this profession was NOT for me. I realize this was a bit too late to have such a revelation...not much I could do to change anything at that point. And then I graduated and had my first baby within a few months. If/when I go back to work, I plan on getting an MBA first...or something.

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  5. I think you would find it more rewarding if you would start assigning "guessays" on The Apprentice. Who do you think deserves to be the apprentice and why? Give "textual" support for your answer.

    Compare and contrast the social stereotypes of educated and non-educated people at play in Networth and Magna. Give an example of "irony."

    Do an character analysis of Chris. Answer this question: What is his problem?

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  6. I know what you mean about teaching. I was working at a law firm when I first got to GA and I was, as I affectionately called it, the office slave. When I did get a teaching job 9 months later I found myself dreading teaching sometimes worse than going and making stacks and stacks of copies or doing hours of neverending filing.

    I definitely understand the 'unemotional' enticement of a Costco stacker or office slave job.

    But, at the end of the day, I guess what I take home from both jobs has shed some light on how I really feel. My stories from teaching are are always peppered with funny, colorful (and many times embarrassing) experiences. And in comparison, stories about my prowess at fixing paper jams in the copier just can't compete.

    Good luck!

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  7. Need more Carly...where y' been B?

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