5.16.2004
I really like my job a lot. I work in the media room of a public library. Mostly I help computer illiterate people sign on to their email accounts & get hit on by middle aged homeless men who smell like wet dog (or much much worse). Still, I work with great people and most of the time it's slow-paced enough, so I can't complain.
Aspects of it, however, are quite humbling. Today, one of the librarians wanted to train me on how to check in newspapers using the new serials control software being implemented. It struck me that at my previous job, I was the one who did the training. I figured out how to do far more complicated things on my own than check in a newspaper. My job here is so piddly compared to what I used to do. I was in charge of $200,000 yearly budget & did all the purchasing & receiving for an academic library, plus tons of other stuff like evaluating databases and library operation systems for purchase, blah blah blah. Now I show people how to copy and paste.
I don't particularly like feeling unimportant. I miss the responsibilities of my old job. At my seminary graduation, the speaker said something humorous but true. The gist of it was: "Today you graduates are on the top of the heap. Enjoy it while it lasts. Because tomorrow, when you go out looking for a job or start another degree program or whereever you go from here, you will be back on the bottom of the pile, working your way back up, regaining credibility, rebuilding respect, basically starting over. That's just how life works."
Yes, it is. Not too pleasant though.
Aspects of it, however, are quite humbling. Today, one of the librarians wanted to train me on how to check in newspapers using the new serials control software being implemented. It struck me that at my previous job, I was the one who did the training. I figured out how to do far more complicated things on my own than check in a newspaper. My job here is so piddly compared to what I used to do. I was in charge of $200,000 yearly budget & did all the purchasing & receiving for an academic library, plus tons of other stuff like evaluating databases and library operation systems for purchase, blah blah blah. Now I show people how to copy and paste.
I don't particularly like feeling unimportant. I miss the responsibilities of my old job. At my seminary graduation, the speaker said something humorous but true. The gist of it was: "Today you graduates are on the top of the heap. Enjoy it while it lasts. Because tomorrow, when you go out looking for a job or start another degree program or whereever you go from here, you will be back on the bottom of the pile, working your way back up, regaining credibility, rebuilding respect, basically starting over. That's just how life works."
Yes, it is. Not too pleasant though.
