Tag Archives: work

My super-exciting life as an almost-adult

My lifestyle is at a weird in-between right now.

It’s because I’m not taking classes. I’m on co-op, working the typical 40 hours a week. I don’t live in a dorm anymore– I’m living in a house out in the suburbs. I drive a car, pay my own rent, buy groceries and cook my own meals.

No, at the moment, my vibrant college life has been put on hold. Instead, I’m getting a taste of… of…

Adulthood? 

It’s a terrifying prospect. Yet, I think this must be what being “settled down” and “old” feels like?

post 109 image 1

What is this? 

WHAT IS MY LIFE RIGHT NOW?

I’m so used to being super-busy, all the time. Well, I’m still pretty busy, all the time. But instead of my schedule being

post 109 image 2

It’s now

post 109 image 3

How can this be? I’m still a teenager! I’m still entitled to do things like

post 109 image 4

But instead, I’m just all like

post 109 image 5

Weird. 

I love my job

I’ve been working at my job for a month or so now. I mentioned it before, I believe– that I’m an office assistant at the NU Procurement Office. And how is it? I love it! Northeastern puts a huge emphasis on “experiential learning” (meaning, the best way to learn is to go out and do it, basically) and I have learned quite a lot at my job! Here’s just a sampling from my newly acquired skillset:

In other words:

In all seriousness, though, I really do like my job! Everyone in the office is really nice and the atmosphere is quiet and relaxed. And though there is a lot of paperwork, I’ll also be trained (eventually) on how to use the university’s finance system for the sake of helping inquiring customers. It’s so much better than my previous job (McDonald’s) which looked a little like this:

Oh, the stories I could tell about McDonald’s. Just another reason why I’m much happier with my current job! Filing papers beats getting burned by burger grease any day.

Free time? What’s that?

Some things are eating my time. More like devouring. College kids don’t sleep? Yeah, it’s true. For me, this is for a couple of reasons:

1. My job.My job as an office assistant, more specifically. Though I only work twice between classes and once after class, it’s still, you know, a time commitment.

2. Volunteering. I’m part of the Civil Engagement Program (CEP)  a community service initiative that requires students receiving full-tuition scholarships to volunteer at least 100 hours a year. I have to partner up with a local organization and work there at least five hours a week– so I’ll be starting next week with Sociedad Latina. I’ll be designing and teaching a biology curriculum to underprivileged Hispanic girls.

3. School. Naturally. Studying and schoolwork takes priority, and time.

All of these together I could handle pretty reasonably, I think. But then one more– just one more opportunity came by that I couldn’t let slip away.

It began before the school year even started:

I applied for the job and included the link to my own blog. Though I was in the mindset of my sister, who said:

As it turns out, my blog is good for something after all! Just recently, the professor running the study at Northeastern sent me an e-mail:

It’s a long story, but I would basically create a daily comic strip about a character trying to lose weight using the study’s cell phone app. I’m not sure how much more I can reveal, since this is a study-in-progress. More importantly, the professor is conducting the study with researchers from Duke University. If they didn’t approve of his idea of incorporating comics, I would be out of business.

So I created some sample comics and sent them in. And waited nervously for two days…

But then, I got:

So I need to create a year’s worth of strips– 365 comics– ASAP. It’s more or less like creating a newspaper-style daily strip, four panels, black and white, for a year. This is a paying job, which is beyond me– getting paid for drawing? Impossible! So now, I’ve got:

It’s a lot. But I’m too stubborn to give up any of them. I want to do everything! It’s a problem. But I’m super-determined to do this. I can do it. It just means less free time and less shut-eye. I think it’s a fair trade.

And then I unexpectly became an office assistant

I have a job!

A completely unexpected job. I barely expected to get employed my first semester of freshman year. Inexperienced college freshman don’t get jobs. There are more qualified upperclassmen all around us, after all.

But I lucked out! On the day I moved in, I, by complete chance, met one of the heads of the NU Procurement Office in the dining hall. Later I saw her again at the student employment fair. Some paperwork, some phone calls, some e-mails, and bam: I have a job. A job that no less than 230 people applied for!

If you know me, or my friends, or my career-oriented family, then you know I’m often like this:

So this is quite a stroke of luck for me. Extremely so; I need the professional experience for when I search for future jobs.

Thus, the gaps in my schedule will be filled with filing papers, sending faxes, and answering phones! I apologize in advance if I can’t update this blog quite as often. My goal is, at the very least, once a week! But, naturally, school and work come first.