Nurses are cool
It's been an intense week, to say the least. To think that one week ago I was given the call for my dream job, and six days since I was dropped into the middle of the ocean without a lifejacket. I still have mixed thoughts about it all, but I've made my choice and I have to live with it.
I regret that I've flaked out on my networking job so much since the news arrived.. and truth be told, I think I flaked out long before then. My heart wasn't in it anymore. I liked the people I worked with, but I really didn't like the job and felt that if I were to work with computers, it would not be in a networking situation. I never quite wrapped my head around that aspect of computing, and despite a great deal of effort.. it just never clicked for me. Over time, it just became more and more apparent to me that I was only still working there because my boss was too nice a guy to cut me loose. For how long he could remain nice is anyone's guess. My opportunity to move on arrived before that ever happened. While that opportunity came with its own set of catches, it was still the better choice. With the Worcester Public Schools, I'd have always been a part time intern doing the dullard jobs that the actual talented people were too busy to devote time to. It had its perks, and I had a lot of free time (and bandwidth) to screw around. It's nice to have that, but I'm 31 years old.. intern pay just won't cut it anymore.. and the older I get, the less likely I would be able to get a good fulltime job.
I wanted to be fair and stick to my two week notice, which technically I am doing. My last day will be a week from now, the Friday after Christmas. But I took all of this week off after getting overwhelmed by requests. While I didn't have deliveries every day this week, I did have some major events to prepare for. Tonight and tomorrow night are/were the annual Nurse Pinning Ceremonies, held in the auditorium. As last Saturday showed me, my know-how with the auditorium setup left a lot to be desired. Unlike the robotics event, I could not count on the event staff to know the technology well enough to guide me through it. I had to learn this stuff on the fly as best I could. And thank Jeebus for rehearsals.. today I spent four hours in rehearsals between the day and night classes, each holding separate ceremonies. These rehearsals put me to the test, and I learned more about my job in those four hours than I had in the last four years working part time as a part time A/V Tech. By the time the rehearsals were done, I had two hours before the first cermony.
I'm proud of myself, and frankly I'm a lucky bastard too. The setup required microphones, video slideshows and music. Not much at first glance, but the way the aud is set up, it normally requires a multitude of equipment that I either don't know/understand or simply could not find. And in the past required my boss (former) to frantically unhook one bit of equipment and setup another to jump from music to video, and so forth. My former boss was a genius at analog equipment and has probably forgotten more about that tech than I'll ever know. But he didn't understand computers so much, and how they may aid him beyond email and spreadsheets.
My Macbook, a mini-dvi to VGA adapter and a headphone to maxi adapter took care of about 2/3rds of the event, enabling me to throw an MPG slideshow onto a big screen via a projector and piped the audio through the sound system with adequate volume control without moving from my seat. It also allowed for my actual laptop screen to be used to jump to iTunes when I needed to switch music, and to surf the web or answer emails while waiting for my next cue. While I was nervous as hell and barely surfed in fear of missing my cue, I didn't have to work nearly as hard as my former boss would have for the same event.
And I must admit.. while ceremonial shit has never been my cup of tea.... there was something touching about the Pinning ceremony. These were all very kind and giving people, with all of their friends and family who had supported them through hardships and had climbed to this point against a lot of adversity. Many of these people were dirt poor, more-so than I've ever been, and had scratched their way through a difficult program and towards a better life for them and their families. The people were mostly very genuine and good-hearted.. and I couldn't help but smile and clap along with the audience. I was proud of myself for handling the event as well as I did, but also for contributing to a big night for all of them. As small as my part was, I was a part of one of the most important nights of their lives.
The people who organized the event, mainly the nursing programs faculty, were all tremendously supportive of me as well and very understanding of the situation I had been placed in. I think they had expected me to screw up somehow given how nervous and apologetic I'd been all day, but they were very happy with how it all turned out. After the ceremony was through, one of them came up to the projection booth where I was stationed and gave me a hug and told me how I'd done a great job and thanked me. You know.. if more people were as kind as this woman was to me tonight, the world would be such a greater place. I was so moved by her gesture, all of the strain of a stressful day just kind of slid off of my back and I can't help but beam a smile just thinking about it.
Not every event I cover will be hosted by such kind people, I realize that... but every year this program holds this ceremony. And I will hope to be the one who covers them.
I still have a rocky road ahead of me. I've already gotten on the bad side of the head IT guy over on campus by raising a fuss over using Macs for video editing (a fight I'm going to lose, since I don't want to make enemies this soon into my full time tenure) ... there's still a lot I don't know and may not pick up as quickly as the things I did today. There's still a minefield of politics I need to tread carefully through, and a lot of very long weeks with backbreaking work and overtime. I'll try to keep the nurses in mind, and the good people I've met and worked with already, and do the best job I can while trying to stay clear of the political backstabbing and highschool-like cliques. I will always try my best too be genuine and to not get sucked into that game. This isn;t a perfect job, and I will have bad days.... but it is my job, my first fulltime job, and I can be good at it if I try. If I care enough. If I keep my friends close and my motives pure. Regardless of the bullshit politics, this is a community college attended mainly by people who haven't had much luck in life and are trying to equip themselves to best make their way in the world. It's those people who I am here to help in whatever little ways I can. That means more than looking good in the eyes of my bosses, it means more than getting in with the "right" crowd. I won't break my back and suffer an early heart-attack for my supervisor, but I will cope with the stress as best I can in order to add my own small contribution towards helping people better themselves and learn.
I regret that I've flaked out on my networking job so much since the news arrived.. and truth be told, I think I flaked out long before then. My heart wasn't in it anymore. I liked the people I worked with, but I really didn't like the job and felt that if I were to work with computers, it would not be in a networking situation. I never quite wrapped my head around that aspect of computing, and despite a great deal of effort.. it just never clicked for me. Over time, it just became more and more apparent to me that I was only still working there because my boss was too nice a guy to cut me loose. For how long he could remain nice is anyone's guess. My opportunity to move on arrived before that ever happened. While that opportunity came with its own set of catches, it was still the better choice. With the Worcester Public Schools, I'd have always been a part time intern doing the dullard jobs that the actual talented people were too busy to devote time to. It had its perks, and I had a lot of free time (and bandwidth) to screw around. It's nice to have that, but I'm 31 years old.. intern pay just won't cut it anymore.. and the older I get, the less likely I would be able to get a good fulltime job.
I wanted to be fair and stick to my two week notice, which technically I am doing. My last day will be a week from now, the Friday after Christmas. But I took all of this week off after getting overwhelmed by requests. While I didn't have deliveries every day this week, I did have some major events to prepare for. Tonight and tomorrow night are/were the annual Nurse Pinning Ceremonies, held in the auditorium. As last Saturday showed me, my know-how with the auditorium setup left a lot to be desired. Unlike the robotics event, I could not count on the event staff to know the technology well enough to guide me through it. I had to learn this stuff on the fly as best I could. And thank Jeebus for rehearsals.. today I spent four hours in rehearsals between the day and night classes, each holding separate ceremonies. These rehearsals put me to the test, and I learned more about my job in those four hours than I had in the last four years working part time as a part time A/V Tech. By the time the rehearsals were done, I had two hours before the first cermony.
I'm proud of myself, and frankly I'm a lucky bastard too. The setup required microphones, video slideshows and music. Not much at first glance, but the way the aud is set up, it normally requires a multitude of equipment that I either don't know/understand or simply could not find. And in the past required my boss (former) to frantically unhook one bit of equipment and setup another to jump from music to video, and so forth. My former boss was a genius at analog equipment and has probably forgotten more about that tech than I'll ever know. But he didn't understand computers so much, and how they may aid him beyond email and spreadsheets.
My Macbook, a mini-dvi to VGA adapter and a headphone to maxi adapter took care of about 2/3rds of the event, enabling me to throw an MPG slideshow onto a big screen via a projector and piped the audio through the sound system with adequate volume control without moving from my seat. It also allowed for my actual laptop screen to be used to jump to iTunes when I needed to switch music, and to surf the web or answer emails while waiting for my next cue. While I was nervous as hell and barely surfed in fear of missing my cue, I didn't have to work nearly as hard as my former boss would have for the same event.
And I must admit.. while ceremonial shit has never been my cup of tea.... there was something touching about the Pinning ceremony. These were all very kind and giving people, with all of their friends and family who had supported them through hardships and had climbed to this point against a lot of adversity. Many of these people were dirt poor, more-so than I've ever been, and had scratched their way through a difficult program and towards a better life for them and their families. The people were mostly very genuine and good-hearted.. and I couldn't help but smile and clap along with the audience. I was proud of myself for handling the event as well as I did, but also for contributing to a big night for all of them. As small as my part was, I was a part of one of the most important nights of their lives.
The people who organized the event, mainly the nursing programs faculty, were all tremendously supportive of me as well and very understanding of the situation I had been placed in. I think they had expected me to screw up somehow given how nervous and apologetic I'd been all day, but they were very happy with how it all turned out. After the ceremony was through, one of them came up to the projection booth where I was stationed and gave me a hug and told me how I'd done a great job and thanked me. You know.. if more people were as kind as this woman was to me tonight, the world would be such a greater place. I was so moved by her gesture, all of the strain of a stressful day just kind of slid off of my back and I can't help but beam a smile just thinking about it.
Not every event I cover will be hosted by such kind people, I realize that... but every year this program holds this ceremony. And I will hope to be the one who covers them.
I still have a rocky road ahead of me. I've already gotten on the bad side of the head IT guy over on campus by raising a fuss over using Macs for video editing (a fight I'm going to lose, since I don't want to make enemies this soon into my full time tenure) ... there's still a lot I don't know and may not pick up as quickly as the things I did today. There's still a minefield of politics I need to tread carefully through, and a lot of very long weeks with backbreaking work and overtime. I'll try to keep the nurses in mind, and the good people I've met and worked with already, and do the best job I can while trying to stay clear of the political backstabbing and highschool-like cliques. I will always try my best too be genuine and to not get sucked into that game. This isn;t a perfect job, and I will have bad days.... but it is my job, my first fulltime job, and I can be good at it if I try. If I care enough. If I keep my friends close and my motives pure. Regardless of the bullshit politics, this is a community college attended mainly by people who haven't had much luck in life and are trying to equip themselves to best make their way in the world. It's those people who I am here to help in whatever little ways I can. That means more than looking good in the eyes of my bosses, it means more than getting in with the "right" crowd. I won't break my back and suffer an early heart-attack for my supervisor, but I will cope with the stress as best I can in order to add my own small contribution towards helping people better themselves and learn.