Dream jobs
I was off work sick yesterday with a headache exacerbated by allergies. In the morning it was a relief to stay home, but by the afternoon I was missing it and ready to go back.
Despite previously mentioned struggles with writing, I really love my job. I'm feeling it today when the writing has cultimated in completed reports. Two of them have reached some kind of end point today. The first one has been sent off to its stakeholders for review, and the second one is being beautified for public consumption. It feel so great when you can look over completed documents and think: here is the fruit of my labour.
Now that the writing is done, I have returned to GIS to fix up a series of maps so they are pretty enough for presentation. It's nice to be on this software again, there hasn't been any significant project work that required maps for a couple of weeks. But it's taking an awfully long time for everything to load, which is bad news for my fingernails. At times like this, I just sit and gnaw at them absent-mindedly as I wait for the screen to load. So it seems a bit more fruitful now to open up notepad and work at an entry. My fingernails are grateful.
Being a researcher and GIS-pro is fantastic, and it's nice to reflect on all the ways that God has prepared me for this through uni, and my personal interests, and the people who have influenced me. But there are some other dream jobs that I also wouldn't mind having if I had the right skills and I didn't have to go through even more training at TAFE or uni.
I love growing things, and I would love to have an outdoorsy job, like a landscape gardener or a conservationist job with National Parks and Wildlife services. Unfortunately, I have heard stories of the enourmous amount of work that my brother-in-law does as a greenkeeper and I'm sure that I don't have the stamina for it. So my compromise is to wish that I had a more promising green thumb and a little bit of earth (like in The Secret Garden) to grow my own things.
I love making things look nice, and I would love to be some kind of graphic designer. It would be amazing to understand how colour works, and to be a little bit aesthetically sensitive. But I have realised that although I can appreciate things that look good, and I can sharpen up things so they look a bit better, I don't have the streak of creativity that's needed to create things from scratch. So I guess for the time being I will enjoy making things look good in the capacity I have: making maps and charts at work and making icons at home.
I love the adrenelin of the stage, and I would love to have a job being a part of it in any way - a musician, a set designer, a sound engineer, a director, a stage hand. As long as it was in the background. I have a big problem with nerves! But where do I even start getting skill sets like these?! And the contacts that I'd need to find a job! And similarly to my problem with being a designer - I lack the particular type of creativity that's needed here. I'll be content then with my mum buying me ballet subscriptions (she is fantastic) and trips to see chamber orchestras and gigs and musicals and dance classes at the Sydney Dance Company. Those things are awesome fun in themselves anyway.
I love helping people understand more about who Jesus is, and I would love to do that all the time. The thing is, I already strive to do it all the time. The question I'm only now beginning to ask myself is: Do I personally want to actually do that as a job? (Am I already doing that working for Anglicare?)
For the time being, I am so happy here at Anglicare. I love that my hobbies are my hobbies, and my work is my work, and striving to serve Jesus and the church and his world is a permanent reality that pervades it all. Yeah, I think that is what I have arrived at, and it is good.
Despite previously mentioned struggles with writing, I really love my job. I'm feeling it today when the writing has cultimated in completed reports. Two of them have reached some kind of end point today. The first one has been sent off to its stakeholders for review, and the second one is being beautified for public consumption. It feel so great when you can look over completed documents and think: here is the fruit of my labour.
Now that the writing is done, I have returned to GIS to fix up a series of maps so they are pretty enough for presentation. It's nice to be on this software again, there hasn't been any significant project work that required maps for a couple of weeks. But it's taking an awfully long time for everything to load, which is bad news for my fingernails. At times like this, I just sit and gnaw at them absent-mindedly as I wait for the screen to load. So it seems a bit more fruitful now to open up notepad and work at an entry. My fingernails are grateful.
Being a researcher and GIS-pro is fantastic, and it's nice to reflect on all the ways that God has prepared me for this through uni, and my personal interests, and the people who have influenced me. But there are some other dream jobs that I also wouldn't mind having if I had the right skills and I didn't have to go through even more training at TAFE or uni.
I love growing things, and I would love to have an outdoorsy job, like a landscape gardener or a conservationist job with National Parks and Wildlife services. Unfortunately, I have heard stories of the enourmous amount of work that my brother-in-law does as a greenkeeper and I'm sure that I don't have the stamina for it. So my compromise is to wish that I had a more promising green thumb and a little bit of earth (like in The Secret Garden) to grow my own things.
I love making things look nice, and I would love to be some kind of graphic designer. It would be amazing to understand how colour works, and to be a little bit aesthetically sensitive. But I have realised that although I can appreciate things that look good, and I can sharpen up things so they look a bit better, I don't have the streak of creativity that's needed to create things from scratch. So I guess for the time being I will enjoy making things look good in the capacity I have: making maps and charts at work and making icons at home.
I love the adrenelin of the stage, and I would love to have a job being a part of it in any way - a musician, a set designer, a sound engineer, a director, a stage hand. As long as it was in the background. I have a big problem with nerves! But where do I even start getting skill sets like these?! And the contacts that I'd need to find a job! And similarly to my problem with being a designer - I lack the particular type of creativity that's needed here. I'll be content then with my mum buying me ballet subscriptions (she is fantastic) and trips to see chamber orchestras and gigs and musicals and dance classes at the Sydney Dance Company. Those things are awesome fun in themselves anyway.
I love helping people understand more about who Jesus is, and I would love to do that all the time. The thing is, I already strive to do it all the time. The question I'm only now beginning to ask myself is: Do I personally want to actually do that as a job? (Am I already doing that working for Anglicare?)
For the time being, I am so happy here at Anglicare. I love that my hobbies are my hobbies, and my work is my work, and striving to serve Jesus and the church and his world is a permanent reality that pervades it all. Yeah, I think that is what I have arrived at, and it is good.