Today I finally heard that I will be student teaching next week! It's been a laborious process getting a placement and there's nothing like the last minute. My office knew that this would most probably be my last day there, but when it was made official they begged me to at least come back next Monday or Tuesday to train several new hires on international shipping. So, I will go back and make sure a Magic Planet gets safely to Hong Kong.
As I thought about the fact that I was now considered an "expert" on international shipping, it made me laugh. Would I ever have thought that particular skill would be part of my repertoire as an adult? It got me thinking about the myriad of skills I've picked up over the 16 or so years of my working life. There are some interesting ones.
I mean, in Kindergarten, when they ask you what you want to be when you grow up, you don't think, "I want to know how to skillfully navigate the government's SED paperwork so that a digital video globe will not get held up in customs..." Yeah. I think I said I wanted to be a nurse (this was 1978 you know). Later on in elementary school, when I realized that nurses had to deal with bodily fluids, I changed my mind. That's when I wanted to work for NASA (see previous post). When it occurred to me that Robotics Engineers had to use a lot of math, I swerved again.
Then when your first "real" job comes along, you find that you're not all that particular. The summer after I graduated from high school I found myself in knee-high boots tromping through giant spiderwebs in kiwi vineyards. Yeah.
So, here are a few skills I've picked up along my winding path of life that I never thought would end up on my resume.
1. Spraying kiwi with mineral solutions for a scientific study.
2. Sorting through out-of-package underwear for matches for the clearance table.
3. Knowing the exact right solution for getting stickers off of new windows in $1M custom homes.
4. Smiling even after being hung up on for the 99th time while trying to conduct phone surveys.
5. Installing light panels and repairing leaks in an 85-unit apartment complex (among other things.)
6. Calling both Bill Hewlett and Bob Packard's offices to see if they'd like to meet with the president of Santa Clara University.
7. Purchasing mustard oil and yellow plastic cups for biologist/botanist's experiments.
8. Running the accounting for a global company (no experience!)
9. Shipping digital video globes to: US, Canada, Mexico, UK, France, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Egypt, China, Japan, Singapore, Australia, Brazil (never ship to Brazil), and South Africa.
10. Informing an 8th grade student that he and his George W. Bush mask must go to the office right away.
Hmmm. That was only in the last 16 years. What's coming up next?
3 comments:
YAY! I am so glad that you will finish your student teaching. You may have to grin and bare it sometimes, but when you finish it will be worth it. One more step in the direction of becoming the best librarian EVER! It is pretty funny because I have a memory of driving with you to go drop something off (or pick up?) at the kiwi place. It was your last thing you had to do before you offically left. Yay for Kiwi!
You've gotten me thinking about all of the random things I've learned as well, not the least of which came from my days at ESRP. Thanks again for helping me get that job! I never would have known about riparian brush rabbits otherwise. And no one should go through life without meeting a riparian brush rabbit or two. :)
Hey, I never got to meet one when I worked there!
Post a Comment