Is It Over Yet? - Post #25 - Jobs of Yore

My first job was working as a sales associate at a department store. I worked in the junior's department. I spent 90% of my time cleaning out the changing room (I once found a used sanitary napkin), 5% of the time cleaning the showroom floor/refolding clothes, 3% of the time answering customer questions (I once showed a man the approximate bra size I thought he would fit), 2% of the time helping out at the cash register.

My next job was working with the Native student organization on my college campus. I helped plan events, put together budgets, I sat on Boards as the Native student representative, and held "office hours" in which I would answer questions about our organization and sometimes about the Native community in Madison. Once a white woman came in to ask what "my people" did to get rid of Asian Beetles. My answer, "uhhhhhh."

During the summers of my college years, I worked at day camps for the community recreation department. I did what most camp counselors did...showed the kids how to make lanyards and paper plate maracas, kicked their tiny little buts at kickball, blew my whistle at them, yelled at them...You know, the usual. I even got to drive one of those 15 passenger vans! Fun times.

My senior year of college going into the last summer of freedom, I worked at at one of those scent filled bath and body shops. I had a headache for the first two weeks from the stench and all of my co-workers were the worst (minus the short time that my roommate worked with me). So it basically was my favorite job ever.

For a short period their I worked at a temp agency. I would show up the day of and wait to see if they needed me for any job. I usually ended up at a factory, where all I did was push Styrofoam boards through a machine that would break it down. That was a weird time in my life.

Then I had my first real post-college job, as a service coordinator for a low-income housing property. I put together programs that educated the residents on financial planning, anger management, parenting classes, adult educational opportunities, and so on. Most of my time however, was spent dealing with the police calls. This was the first job that I did not voluntarily leave. Luckily I wasn't fired, but I was laid off.

And then, I went to my current place of employment. My work history in retrospect seems kind of short and all over the place. But at least I can say I never had a job that I absolutely hated. Don't get me wrong, I definitely didn't love the jobs, but at least I never quit out of frustration.