Thoughts After One Week At The New Job

I started a job at the local library on Monday. These are a few of my thoughts about this job and working in general.

1. I didn't realize how much I had gotten used to living life as a pseudo-bum. As a substitute teacher, I usually had 3 days of work each week (and that was a busy week). Each day was about 7 hours of work. So now I'm working 8 hours a day (plus an extra hour because they force us all to take an hour for lunch), 5 days of week. Needless to say my body and my mind are missing their down time.

2. A new job certainly brings out one's paranoid test. I feel like everyone has been testing me all week at work. Let's see how much the new guy really knows. Let's see how much stuff we can dump on the new guy before his brain implodes.

3. People seemed a little surprised that I came back for a second (3rd, 4th, and 5th also) day. There has been nothing about this job nearly as stressful as a day of subbing. If you ever think your job sucks, I suggest you try substitute teaching for a week in an urban school district. It will really put things into perspective.

4. Sometimes it is a good thing to be wearing a Trainee badge, people expect much less of you.

5. I actually had a patron ask me to stop reading to children today. He was sick of the repetitive nature of the book. I continued reading the book. Why? Because the kids were loving the story (and so were the parents).

6. It doesn't take a lot for me to have a good day. A mother told me today that her child had never sat through someone reading him an entire book until I read to him. I was on cloud 9 the rest of the day.