This summer has been weird. Probably my weirdest one yet.
After graduating from college, I spent a week or two applying for editing jobs. I even got some interviews, but unfortunately, nobody wants to hire on an editor only to have her move to a tropical place before she's even finished being properly trained. So, I spent the next week applying for receptionist type office jobs. No dice.
At this point I tried to grow my Etsy shop, but that sort of thing takes time so eventually Jared drop kicked me back into the job hunt. J-Dawgs, Wendy's, and grocery store jobs were the apple of my eye. "All right," I pep-talked myself, "these people are bound to take you! My brothers who haven't even graduated from high school get jobs at these places!" However, I think these people realized that I was overqualified and probably wouldn't stay long, because I never heard a peep from any of them after applying.
I then spent a few more days just sleeping in and being sad because nobody likes rejection and I just needed to mope for a second. But alas, medical school is expensive and I knew I needed to pull myself together so that we could earn enough money to be able to move at the end of the summer. Jared doesn't like to see me sad (or broke), so he wouldn't rest until I had a job either. We spent an entire day applying to all the temp agencies in the valley. Not ideal, but it paid off. I landed a job in a mattress warehouse which started this last Monday.
The commute was 45 minutes each way, the pay wasn't hot, and the transportation was tricky, but at least it was something. And for about a day, it was something I really believed I could endure for a month or two. At the end of the next day though, I knew I wouldn't last. I had to borrow a car from my parents and the work days were eleven hours long. Eleven hours of doing the same assembly-line task over and over and over and over again. Never have my shoulders hurt so bad at the end of a day. But I could have dealt with that if the people I worked with were pleasant. The environment as a whole just dragged me further and further down, until even when I got home at the end of the day I couldn't pull myself out of the funk. In the past four days, I have heard more expletives, dirty jokes, drug conversations, and attacks on my religion than I have in the rest of my life combined. Everyone talked about everyone else behind their backs, and for some reason people thought it would be funny to show me their bums. I got along with these people and they seemed to like me, but the whole situation just wasn't working.
I jumped at the chance to interview at a local ShopKo and spend a few days next week doing a much pleasenter temp job in my city. I quit my warehouse job after only four days.
As much as I hate the idea of floundering around for the rest of the summer, grasping at any inkling of a working day, I know it'll be ok. It's sort of sad that Jared never wants this last summer before med school to end, and I yearn for it to be over as soon as possible. The lesson of the year for me is patience. Patience. It's going to be fine. And to prove that I'm really not a sad person, here are a few pictures of some happier summer moments:
And for the record, I would encourage all of you to get a college education.