Story Weekend: Favorite Job Ever!
What was yours and what made it so special? I’ll start it off with my own story this week.
If you’re new to Story Weekend, here’s how it works: I pick a theme and you share something from your life that relates to that theme, however you interpret it. Thanks to all of you who’ve contributed. As always, there are a few “rules”:
▪ The story must be true
▪ Try to keep it under 100 words. Embrace the challenge! That’s about six or seven lines in the comment form. I want others to read your story, and most people tend to skip if it’s too long. I know how tough it is to “write tight” but I hope you’ll accept this as a challenge. Happy writing!
I walked into the maternity unit to find a small huddle of nurses and one doctor at the door of a patient’s room. The doctor looked up when he saw me. “Here she comes,” he said with obvious relief. They told me about the patient who’d sunk into a near catatonic state when her baby was born with a heart defect. They knew I would find a way to help. I loved being needed. I couldn’t save a life like the doctors and nurses, but I had a skill set they didn’t have. While I certainly adore writing and getting to touch tens of thousands of people with my books, I’ll never forget that job where I could help people, one by one.
My current job. I work from home doing medical transcription. I work in my pajamas every day. I do my laundry while I work. I never have to put on shoes to go to work.
I worked for 8 years as a high risk maternity case manager. I was able to connect with pregnant women that were going through a difficult time and hoping for a healthy happy outcome for their pregnancy. I was able to provide education, guidance, and support for a special group of women and their families. This job gave me great satisfaction and joy and I miss it every day!
I was asked to “temporarily” help out another department. Being a “team player” I agreed, with the understanding I would be able to go back to my high risk maternity position. Unfortunately the company decided to “restructure” the company and my position was eliminated. They did offer me another position in the same company but it doesn’t compare to the job I loved for 8 years.
My favorite job has to be the one where I spent 30 very fun years…………teaching young children! I spent the last 24 years of my teaching career teaching first grade! It was truly a joy to spend my days with those six and seven year old children. One morning, on my way to school, I heard Paul Harvey on the radio. He said, “If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life!” i immediately went into my principal’s office and relayed to him that I had just heard a perfect description of myself! Paul Harvey’s words were so true! Children are the best!!!!
When I was 15 years old I worked in a rest home. I was scared initially. I hadn’t had much experience with the elderly. It was poorly paid and did all sorts of unpleasant tasks! Despite that my residents became very dear to me. I always had jellybeans in my pockets to give my oldies a sweet treat! Many never got out to the shops or ever had visitors to bring them lifes little luxuries. When I walked into the room Winnie would look up and her eyes would brighten and a big smile would light up her face – a combination of real affection and cupboard love! I have never forgotten the joy that job bought me.
My favorite job was as a volunteer docent at the Carl Sandburg Historical site here in western NC. I gave house tours and in the process met wonderful visitors from all over the world. I toured groups of children/teens from local schools; groups of senior citizens on a field trips; as well as individual visitors passing through. Our maximum per tour was 15 but in cold, rainy weather it was not unusual to have only one person on a tour. I did that for five years before my left knee refused to no longer let me do the stairs. Going up was no problem, it was the wear and tear on the knee while descending eight flights of stairs per tour, four tours per day, that forced me to resign.
For two years I taught three year olds at a cooperative preschool in Virginia. The money wasn’t enough to help support the family so I moved on to more lucrative but far less fulfilling jobs in DC and NYC. It has been 34 years but I can still hear their laughter, see their smiles and feel their energy as them ran to the playground. Today as I interactive with my three year old grandson I miss that “job”. If my finances had been different and if my back had cooperated, I think I would still be there.
Secretary to the chair of a CUNY art department. As an artist, he didn’t generate much paper so I had enough spare time to type up essays and articles for as idiosyncratic a group of artists and art historians as were ever assembled on one teaching staff.