Hi. I'm Jeckles, my 17 year old son and I live with with my parents. I'm twice divorced and I work at a movie theater. Life, to put it simply, hasn't turned out the way I thought it would.
If you would have met me 2 years ago, I would have told you that I live in a high rise apartment with my wife and my son. And that the view is incredible. That I was part of the leadership team team at an IT Services company. That I was optimistic about the future.
At the moment, I don't give much thought to the future. The present is more than enough.
I started the job Saturday. I trained as a food runner. Lots of running. And crouching while you carry the food. You don't want to block the screen. I've done food service before, and I picked this up pretty quickly. My body on the hand, is still adjusting. My feet and my back are killing me by the end of a shift.
My coworkers are half my age, or younger. I actually like working with the young folks. The have an energy to them, that many of us grown ups have lost. It took 5 days before one of them worked up the nerve to ask me how old I was.
I was worried that I would not get the kind of hours I wanted. That fear was unfounded. Some one always wants to leave early or take a day off. My first scheduled day off was Thursday, but I picked up a shift. I turned my Friday day shift into a 12 hour shift, helping with a busy night. Saturday I started training on ticket sales. That sucked. Extremely boring. I'd much rather do the running, my back be damned. And then, perhaps poetically, on Sunday I had off. I could have pulled a shift, but I decided that there are limits and I was better served taking the day. I was supposed to have Wednesday off as well, but I was able to pick a shift. My first 8 days, netted me 61 or so hours. 4 of them will be overtime. And on top of that, I traveled over 50 miles inside of that building, delivering hundreds of drinks, dozens of sandwiches and oh so much popcorn. This week (our weeks run Friday to Thursday) will mostly be ticket sales, I'm not looking forward to it. But I'm guessing I won't do that much once I'm officially trained. But it will give me one more position that I can pick up for more hours.
If it sounds like I've been a little over the top trying to get hours and learn the job, I probably have been. I have always tried to be the best at whatever I do. And while this job represents more than a little setback in my career, I still intend to excel at it. And the pay is nothing to write home about, but I will make absolutely as much I can while this is what I do.
It might not be a dream job, but honestly it is far better than sitting home stressing about why no one wants to hire me for the kind of job that I thought I deserved. Besides, I am 100 miles from the place that I still consider home, I don't know anyone here except family. My son is busy with school and video games and being 17. I literally have nothing better to do.
For the moment, this is what life looks like, and I'm going to give myself a little break from trying to plan for the future.
2 comments:
1. SO PROUD OF YOU. You know, so many people our age would be afraid to come clean or be worried about what their invisible computer friends might think. Fuck those people - an honest day's work is always an honorable thing whether it's scrubbing toilets or sitting at a desk or answering phones or whatever.
2. I love that you have the best attitude about it. I know PLENTY of people who would bitch and moan about working with younger people and how they want to take off early or get an extra day off -- I'm like you in that I feel it's just an excellent opportunity for me to get what *I* need out of the job, and also you don't have to ask for the extra shifts, they're served up for you if you want them!
3. You already know I think this is an awesome way to help fight off the blues & depression - you're working, you're ENJOYING the fun part of this type of job, and you're making it into the best you can be doing it. <3
XOXOXOXOXOX
Thanks hon!
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