Job Musings

Note to Readers: This may be boring to you :( I did this to reflect for myself, so if you stop reading, I understand :) Lately, I have been thinking about all the jobs I have had and what I loved, disliked, and learned about and from all of them. Of course, jobs started out for me as allowance--getting a quarter or so for doing random things around the house like unloading the dishwasher and setting the table, and sometimes I wonder if at that age I was really helping--my poor parents. Then, I hit the age of twelve where I babysat for my family and for many others in our ward in CA. I loved babysitting and playing with the kids. Hitting the age of sixteen, the babysitting bubble pops and you start wanting to hang out with friends more than little kids on a Friday night, even though you still love them. Then the era of moving smack in the middle of the summer the summer before my junior year and before my senior year prevented me from looking for steady summer jobs in high school, and so I did a little bit of babysitting through those years. As high school graduation approached, I knew I needed a REAL job, the kind with a steady pay check. It was then that I began my job career :) 1. I prayed that I would find a job where I didn't have to work on Sundays (hard to come by in Washington state where my family was by that point) so I could keep the Sabbath Day holy. My prayer was quickly answered as Subway, one of the many places I applied, hired me and allowed to keep my Sunday commitments. The Subway I worked at was the busiest Subway in eastern Washington (prestigious, I know!). My manager was tough and expected that we could make a sandwich in thirty seconds or less or we would be "punished." I quickly memorized all of the sandwich formulas, practiced, and was timed, so that when that line was ten feet out the door, I could help the customers get their tummies filled quickly :)

I was surprised with the dear friends I made who were so different than me, and yet I found myself loving them so much. I was known as the Mormon girl, and everyone was so kind to respect my beliefs about swearing even though it differed from theirs. I can truly say the Subway diet worked!! Maybe it was because I worked ten hour days only sitting for a few minutes on most days, running around like crazy, and all I ate all day was a free foot long honey oat veggie sandwich with cheese, most of the time, (and a cookie or two--they were to die for), plus I was carrying freight of frozen bread over my head on ladders--sometimes I want to work at that Subway again just to get in shape! I worked there for the summer before BYU and the summer after my freshmen year. The summer after my freshmen year I had a different boss and all new co-workers except my dear friend, Mindy.

We had ice cream at that Subway and when things would settle down a little Mindy and I would make milkshakes, throwing in some Subway cookie dough--bliss. There are so many good memories at that Subway. I still have a soft spot for it, and it will always rival Quiznos because of my biased memories. 2. After helping my family due to some medical emergencies the summer after my Sophomore year, at the end of winter semester of my Junior year I was offered a job to tutor two high school girls and one eleven year old girl adopted from Russia in Orem. I loved it! It was my first time tutoring English, and I learned much about myself and English through that process. I continued to tutor the eleven year old twice a week throughout that summer. We developed a bond as shown by this picture of us :)

3. While tutoring my Russian girls, I was offered a job at Special Collections, BYU. So for about four months, I did both until it became too much, and I had to quit my tutoring job. I must admit Special Collections was my favorite job of ALL time, and it is hard to rival. I mean look at this trailer promoting it: It really is that exciting! I worked for the 19th and 20th Century Western and Mormon Americana curator. I would "process" or read, digest, and summarize, old diaries from the pioneers, letters, photos, etc. For me, it was like heaven being around all those old things! I loved the people I worked with, and I loved immersing myself in that history. I would catalog the information and program it into HTML coding so it would be available on the online library catalog, and I would submit names into the Library of Congress database. I worked there my whole senior year at BYU, and then sadly, once graduated, you are forced to leave. However, it did make me consider going into library science or curatorial work.

4) Feeling withdrawals for my Special Collections job after my two days of absence, I looked for a new job for the summer before I would leave to Ogden for grad school. The day before graduation, I applied for four jobs; the morning of graduation I was called by Deseret Book in Provo to come in that morning (THE SAME DAY AS GRADUATION), was interviewed, and was hired. Luckily and as an answer to prayer, I had a job by the time I received my diploma. I felt so lucky to be working in such a wonderful atmosphere surrounded by books that I loved. The only thing I did not like about this job was the pressure of selling platinum accounts. Every morning they posted how many each employee had sold the previous day--talk about pressure. I loved the Lion House orange and caramel rolls that were imported daily--I had to learn how to stay away from those quick! I loved having the Deseret Book library which had many books and CDs the employees could check out so they would be able to recommend products to customers. Having access to all of those books and DVDs was bliss! I made some dear friends at this job; almost all of the employees were girls so we had lots of fun girl talks as we went around straightening displays. Leaving Deseret Book was necessary as I had to move to Ogden to pursue the rest of my education.

5) After one semester in my Master's program, I realized that working and going to school would be possible with my schedule. I was referred by a friend to look into the Weber State Writing Center. This was a pivotal change in my life because for the first time, even after having already graduated in English from BYU, I really came to understand grammar and writing. At BYU, I had focused most of my attention on British lit and history and not as much on editing and grammar. This job forced me to KNOW what I was talking about in writing. I worked with students in all levels of college from Bio Med to students from India or Pakistan (there were actually MANY of these students because Weber has a deal set up with the King to send students to Weber). I learned so much tutoring many students one on one. I had this job for about two years. The last year I taught grammar workshops to groups of college students, which helped my teaching of grammar any more. Definitely, a blessing. I even had publishing opportunities because of this job. The best part of this job was that I met Kelsi, who I needed so much right when we met, and through my co-worker, Josh also known as Yenta, met Ben! There were some hardships in this job that I had never before experienced, but it was all worth meeting Kelsi and Ben :) This photo was taken at a work party:

6)Last but not least, what do I do now? I will explain that. Later.