Evolving through work
I will soon be leaving the job that I've loved at UC San Diego and moving back to my hometown Portland. As might be expected, there is much I will miss, not least of all the SUN. But that's a subject for another day ...
No, I'm not heading into retirement. Oh, maybe semi, with occasional temp gigs to keep the brain functioning and feeling involved in the world. And ever since I submitted my resignation I seem to get into conversations with friends and co-workers about my work history. And how the experiences been all over the board.
And just now I'm seeing how, while I've never had an actual career, I have nevertheless evolved from the wide-eyed teen who quit college for marriage, who lived as a family "on the economy" in France for 14 months (working my first temp job to get the money to go) and after returning to U.S. economic realities, went to work as a long distance telephone operator.
Learned a lot, worked through a strike, edited a newsletter, handled emergency calls -- no 911, no direct dial in those long-ago days. But finally the split shifts got to me -- that and the ticket I got going way over the speed limit because we had to be at our position on the board on the dot.
And so on to Vancouver Furniture, a most progressive store and extremely successful business where for 6-1/2 years as "head secretary" I learned the practicalities and the nuances of both retailing and Judaism. Oh I was also the official store writer.
(to be continued)
now a change of pace, On the Edge
Positively,
Carolan
No, I'm not heading into retirement. Oh, maybe semi, with occasional temp gigs to keep the brain functioning and feeling involved in the world. And ever since I submitted my resignation I seem to get into conversations with friends and co-workers about my work history. And how the experiences been all over the board.
And just now I'm seeing how, while I've never had an actual career, I have nevertheless evolved from the wide-eyed teen who quit college for marriage, who lived as a family "on the economy" in France for 14 months (working my first temp job to get the money to go) and after returning to U.S. economic realities, went to work as a long distance telephone operator.
Learned a lot, worked through a strike, edited a newsletter, handled emergency calls -- no 911, no direct dial in those long-ago days. But finally the split shifts got to me -- that and the ticket I got going way over the speed limit because we had to be at our position on the board on the dot.
And so on to Vancouver Furniture, a most progressive store and extremely successful business where for 6-1/2 years as "head secretary" I learned the practicalities and the nuances of both retailing and Judaism. Oh I was also the official store writer.
(to be continued)
now a change of pace, On the Edge
Positively,
Carolan
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