7 posts tagged “work”

I feel like I've been asking myself that question to some degree for the last 12 or so years. During that time I've spent WAY too long at a community college, gotten married, and finally decided to bit the now-or-never bullet and go back to school to get a BA. Still lacking direction, I chose a BA in Sociology. After all, I love everything from history to anthropology and the way people interact. I didn't know until a year ago that I was interested in politics (though not politicians or the flawed process of carrying out the law).

If I could do anything I'd make ceramic sculpture, but I know that to be a very perilous path and have decided not to attempt to follow it. When people (at school) ask me what I want to do, I still don't know. The closest answer I can get to is "write". I'd also like to do something that matters. I vaguely imagine that a job at UNICEF, the EFF, or heck the Discovery Channel (pre-their stance on Taxi to the Dark Side) would be good. DemocracyNow!, a Museum, an ethical FEMA?

So my adviser says to me, "you should go to grad school". This wasn't something I'd thought about. My options would be limited. Rather in fact. Moving is not an option. That leaves me with a school whose programs don't interest me and another whose programs do, but honestly can I 1. get in (my grades now are excellent, but my community college days were mediocre) and 2. get funding. Yet another rub, is that I'd have to quit my job. As things stand right now, this would not be livable. Other things would need to change first. So, imagining that all these hurdles are cleared with ease...

What would be the point of getting an MA or PhD? Unless the world and my place in it changes greatly, I won't be moving to a larger or job friendly area. What would I do after the 2 to 7 years it would take me to complete said degree? Teach? Write? What else? I'm not sure I can take a blind leap without some better idea of the possibilities, but if I stay at the present job it will kill my soul.

And yes, I know this sounds a lot like an older post - obviously it's a recurring theme...

For once I read about something elsewhere and a week earlier, than it appeared in DemocracyNow. Still, DN always has great interviews and voices that you don’t normally hear in the mainstream or at such length.

I am particularly interested in this story about drugs in the water supply because water concerns me at work. I’m up to my eyeballs in e. Coli water test results these days. My customers ask for the 5 geometric mean of most recent results, others want the results before they’ll take the product. One customer came out to inspect our fields to see if we were in accordance with the Leafy Greens Metrics for buffer zones from grazing cattle, etc. Nevermind that this particular company wants more strict buffers, etc and there is no scientific guidance for this.

So what will they want next? We test for generic e. Coli, sometimes e. Coli 0157:H7, sometimes salmonella… the coolers test for all these things and several others in the water that makes ice. We have to test pre-harvest water, post harvest water, the water that mixes with pesticides and fertilizers… I’ve read what the EPA tests for (MANY things) – so when do we start having to test for prescription and illicit drugs? Where does it end? And why did no one ever realize that things go in cycles and have to go somewhere? There are pesticides in everything we eat, even if it’s organic or you raise it yourself. There is corn in everything we eat. Know what else it probably in the water? Vitamins. The dry tablet form that most people take doesn’t all stay in your system – most of it comes back out (visibly if you're paying attention). Even if they are removing that stuff, where does the residue go? What do they do with it?

I was watching the Colbert Report last week and they had Dean Kamen on the show. He has  invented a vapor compression distiller that can make clean water from sewage, seawater or poison without any filters, chemicals or membranes. It seemed amazing. I’ve read in a few blogs that there is a power source concern, but some say that it is equipped to run on several alternate energy sources. But is the water safe to drink? Can’t seem to find anything on Kamen that isn’t from Colbert.

I was hoping to figure out what I could to do with my degree (BA in Sociology) while I was working on it. It's not a lot of help to me in my current job. I knew it wouldn't be, of course. Which makes it more for myself than anything. That is fine in some ways, but it's also a waste. Then there is my job. Horrible, yet frequently challenging (though often for all the wrong reasons, thanks to the petty tyrants). I keep thinking that I've learned all about things I don't want to do. And yet I'm still doing them.

My adviser has suggested several times that I keep going to school. I've looked up the local programs and if I did go, it could be another 5 to 7 years of school. I'd have to quit my job, get a part time job, cut my mom loose (she had a disabling on the job injury and I've been supporting her. Now she is going to start working on her MA - am I going to keep my bad job to support her going to school?), and live on less. My husband would have to step up. We'd probably never own a house. Then I look at it another way - I keep the job to get the pay that allows me to support my mom. She needs help, but frankly, she chould do more to support herself. If I bought a house I wouldn't be able to quit (I've wiggled myself into good pay after 8 years and there really are no equivalent jobs locally - small town).

I could go to school and do something enjoyable (maybe teach and write after) or I could keep my future-less job. It's only the rest of my life.

And as I write this I am procrastinating in writing the first draft of my senior project....

It can be tough to figure out what you want to do for a living. For me it has to be something that will make me happy. Without getting into all my particulars, let's just say that I  am interested in many things, fairly organized, always willing to learn / help / get things done that others weasel out of. I like to write (and do so pretty well). I'm creative. I don't like corporate BS, busy work or having to redo my work because some manager can't decide how things should be presented until AFTER the project is complete.

After many years of just getting by I decided to bite the bullet and finish my BA. I chose Sociology because it interested me, but also because there was a local program that had evening classes. At one time I would have liked to get an English degree. If I could simply spend my life making pottery I would. So I'm working my way through this degree and when I'm finished I'll have the same job. This degree is for me. I hunt the job boards, local JC, school districts, etc., and I can't find a job goal other than "not what I'm doing now." 

As ever, I feel that I lack the connections with people and the community to find what's out there. Everything I see and they aren't jobs that would even later turn into something I'd like) cut my current pay in half. Do I have outlandish expectations? Do I have a bad attitude? Am I already in the best place I can be?

I'd like to think that I could go on in school, but if I can't come up with a real, viable, career goal, how can I justify the time and money?

What do you do when the place you live in has no jobs available? My town is somewhere between 75,000 and 100,000 people. I continually find new depths of loathing for my job. The fact that I am fairly well paid is no longer a factor. I am willing to take a pay cut for a new job.

Recently, I've been looking for a new job and the results could not be more depressing. I have looked on every job board you can think of, in local papers, state, county, edu sites. I've looked in nearby cities and outside my field. I've found nothing. I'm not being picky - I already told you I'd take a pay cut. OK, one potential that I am likely not qualified for, but what the heck? Most of the results I find are 1. very few in any given category, 2. half of those are actually military, 3. 2/3 of the rest are something like filing clerks for whatever category I was looking in.

Does anyone out there in a small town like their job? How the heck did you find it?
(no, don't say you found it through a friend / co-worker - at least 3/4 of the people I work with are also looking for jobs, which just tells you what kind of shape I'm in).

This is ALMOST the end of my second term toward my BA in Sociology and I've been working my butt off. 9 week accelerated classes (2 of them), the full time job and all the rest of life are a lot to pack into such a short time frame.
On the up side though, at least I'm using my brain for something =)

This post represents the continuation of a major bout of slacking that actually started with laundry and dish washing, continued on to sitting outside to think, then napping in an uncomfortable position and is obviously continuing right now, 4 hours later. It's amazing what a person will do to get out of what they should be doing. one paper to finish for tomorrow and the research project that really needs to be "done" by Monday night - must move on to the actually working phase.

Side note, POTC3 was a blast. Definitely the least of the three, not nearly as good, but fun none-the-less.

The wedding is over and all sewing was completed just in time.  There will be no more sewing for at least the next 9 weeks. 

Why?  Well, I've temporarily skipped part of step .9 (signing my soul to the student loan folks by coughing up some initial cash), finished class #1 (lots of reading, but not too hard other that that) and moved right along to an honest to goodness hard class.

I'm taking 2 classes, one online and the other on site.  The online class has some reading (including 3 short novels) and a few short papers.  the other class is Social Research Design and in 9 weeks I have to: attend 9 - 5 hour class sessions, research and write a 15 page research project (which incluldes a mandatory outline and revised outline), write 6 - 2 to 3 page essays (proper APA formatting and all that), write 8 - one page write ups on a radio program that airs weekly (which means listening to 8 hours of radio), read 9 chapters (in 6 weks), read a couple handout articles that my dictonary needs a dictonary for,  and take various quizes.  Whew!  In a normal semester I'd say it was no sweat, but in a 9 wk one, while working a 40 hr/wk job that has temporarily become my usual job AND someone else's duties while they try to fill the spot - it's a lot.  Did I mention that my instructor is a 30-something-dorky-surfing-PolySci-PhD whose speach cadience reminds me of Jim Rome?

Oh hey! look at the time!  It's Friday night and I'm sitting at home with a paper to write and 2 dry chapters to choke down.  See everyone in 2 months!