Bizarre

Today was my last day of work.  It was, to say the least, bizarre.  The last few weeks have been strange, but I expected that.  I knew it would feel weird to make the next transition into “adulthood.”  I also knew that the closer I got to graduation, the stranger things would feel. 

In late June of 2005, I started work as a temp at my dad’s company (I was hired through the temp agency) earning $12/hour. At the time, I was about to start my junior year of college.  I worked there through the third week of August.  At that point, the temp position was getting ready to end anyway, and I needed to have my wisdom teeth pulled.  However, around the beginning of August, I got an interesting phone call.  My youngest brother called me to say that our previous bishop had called the house (as he didn’t have my work number) and left a message for me to call him regarding a student hourly position through the university.  His department needed someone and since I was a student at the university (a requirement for the position), he thought of me.  I was offered the position at $9/hour and I ended up taking it.  While they could have used me prior to September, the place I was temping at needed me as long as they could have me.  So they had me through the third week of August and then I was off for a week to have my wisdom teeth pulled.  Then classes started right after Labor Day and I also started my new job. 

Now, nearly 2 ½ years later, that job has ended.  As I clocked my last hours today, I did so at $11/hour.  It’s hard to believe I worked there for that long.  While it doesn’t feel like yesterday that I started, it certainly doesn’t seem like 5 semesters of classes (plus two summers!) have gone by.  Since September 2005, I’ve worked 12 hours/week during the school year and between 30 and 40 hours/week during breaks.  I’ve hated a lot of it.  It’s a job where there can be a significant amount of downtime, when I’m nothing more than a warm body in the office.  That tends to happen more in the summer than during the school year as well.  I’m not someone who twiddles their thumbs well, so that made things all the worse. 

This last summer I thought for sure I was going to get fired.  They had less and less for me to do and I thought for sure that was it.  I signed up with the temp agency again and really looked for a new job.  However, I never found one and thus stayed where I was.  I can’t begin to tell you how often I prayed to find a new job.  However, I also prayed for Heavenly Father’s will, even if that meant staying put.  Heavenly Father definitely knows us better than we know ourselves.  By staying put, I met someone who’s become a good friend.  Her name’s Katie and if I’d found a new job, I’d never have met her.  You see, she was hired at the end of August to do purchasing stuff in the upstairs office.  It’s been great talking to her and getting to know her this semester. 

Yesterday and today, Katie followed me around as my shadow.  It just occurred to my supervisor(s) and her’s that they actually need to have someone do the things I do.  As the upstairs office doesn’t always have stuff for her to do, it was decided that she would take over a lot of the stuff I do.  It’s actually a great idea, but it didn’t come about until Wednesday or Thursday morning.  When I got in on Thursday, Katie was waiting for me (along with a note from the woman I worked with) saying that Katie was going to follow me around and I was going to show her the basics of what I did.  So that’s what I did. Yesterday was looking at the different types of orders I enter, what they look like when they’re turned in, and what they should look like after they’re entered.  Mostly today we did invoices and looked at the different filing systems.  But basically, she followed me around and I showed her the different things that I do, in addition to the tips and tricks I’ve picked up in the nearly 2 ½ years I’ve worked there. 

I expected today to be strange and bittersweet, but I didn’t understand (and maybe I couldn’t have) just how bizarre I would feel as I left work for the last time.  I’ve had such a love/hate relationship with work for so long.  I wasn’t expecting to be teary-eyed as I left.  I wasn’t expecting to feel like crying as I hugged Katie as I locked the door and left for the last time.  As I sit in my dad’s truck right now on the way home from my grandparents’ house and type this, I’m amazed at how much I’ll miss work.