New Job
I said I have other updates. It hardly seems significant as I sit and listen to Terry Gross talk with her guest, a reporter familiar with the state department and North Korea policy, about whether we're at the brink of war with North Korea, but regardless...
I said some time ago that it seemed clear that I didn't have the job I'd interviewed for. As it turns out I do; it just had to make it through the bureaucracy first.
So I'm starting a new job on Monday morning! I'll be a library tech at a local teaching hospital in downtown Chicago. Decent pay, great benefits, and an eleven-mile bike ride from home. It's a tremendous relief to have that aspect of my life settled; maybe now I can start working on the rest of it.
I took transit with my bike down this past Friday to sign papers and everything. I got off Metra at Ogilvie and figured I'd ride the rest of the way. Turns out I went in exactly the opposite direction for several miles before I realized it. I turned around and managed to get there with about five minutes to spare, and damp with sweat. Fortunately, it was misting out, so the damp was explainable...
After going through the health screening and talking to HR, I biked home. Google had suggested a 16 mile route, but I found a straight shot up Halsted that's five miles shorter and goes right through Boy's Town; double bonus.
And my new employee orientation is Monday at 7:30, after which I'll be working full time. Since we still don't have a housemate renting our room, it'll be really nice to have extra money again. Beyond that, I think that, long term, I'd like to be working in a library as an academic librarian or an archivist, and library experience is a step in that direction.
Anxiety is fueling a lot of my feelings about this too. Last night, I had several nightmares about the new job. There were two where I was supposed to start work a week before I thought, and I'd already missed two days of work. I haven't started the job and I already have significant impostor syndrome; sometimes I have deep fears that, for whatever reason, I won't be able to learn the job and will foul it all up.
All that aside though, I'm feeling as good about my immediate personal future as I have in a long time.
I said some time ago that it seemed clear that I didn't have the job I'd interviewed for. As it turns out I do; it just had to make it through the bureaucracy first.
So I'm starting a new job on Monday morning! I'll be a library tech at a local teaching hospital in downtown Chicago. Decent pay, great benefits, and an eleven-mile bike ride from home. It's a tremendous relief to have that aspect of my life settled; maybe now I can start working on the rest of it.
I took transit with my bike down this past Friday to sign papers and everything. I got off Metra at Ogilvie and figured I'd ride the rest of the way. Turns out I went in exactly the opposite direction for several miles before I realized it. I turned around and managed to get there with about five minutes to spare, and damp with sweat. Fortunately, it was misting out, so the damp was explainable...
After going through the health screening and talking to HR, I biked home. Google had suggested a 16 mile route, but I found a straight shot up Halsted that's five miles shorter and goes right through Boy's Town; double bonus.
And my new employee orientation is Monday at 7:30, after which I'll be working full time. Since we still don't have a housemate renting our room, it'll be really nice to have extra money again. Beyond that, I think that, long term, I'd like to be working in a library as an academic librarian or an archivist, and library experience is a step in that direction.
Anxiety is fueling a lot of my feelings about this too. Last night, I had several nightmares about the new job. There were two where I was supposed to start work a week before I thought, and I'd already missed two days of work. I haven't started the job and I already have significant impostor syndrome; sometimes I have deep fears that, for whatever reason, I won't be able to learn the job and will foul it all up.
All that aside though, I'm feeling as good about my immediate personal future as I have in a long time.