My first real job was when I was a first year student at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Cash registers and taking food orders terrified me, so that limited the workforce for my 18 year-old self. Luckily for me that year SCAD teamed up with local elementary schools and created the "Book Buddy" program. I never understood why they called it that, but the idea was that art students would spend about twenty hours a week working for minimum wage in K-5th grade classrooms. We would help the teacher grade, come up with ways to integrate art projects into standard curriculum (a huge ask of an 18 year-old and seasoned/financially restricted teachers I now realize), and help keep general order of students. It was exhausting and highly rewarding and it taught me the most important thing I could have learned at that age: I hate working with children.
That's not true. I just don't particularly enjoy working with children. When I worked at a non-profit art center as an interim-educational director, I worked with children and adults. One day a parent signed their kid in and then decided to take them home without telling any of the adults in charge and as the teacher took roll call, she realized we were one kid short. What ensued was a panicked search, a call to the parent that went unanswered for what felt like an eternity but was probably closer to twenty minutes, and a call to the police about a FULL MISSING HUMAN BEING. And then the parent got annoyed with us. Granted, it wasn't actually the child's fault and maybe my beef is more with human error than children, but when a child is suddenly not where you put the child...I MEAN.
I worked as a Book Buddy for two terms, and at the end of the school year moved to a new apartment on the other side of the city. The move, and needing a job for summer, sent me back to the on-campus job search. I found a job listing for the library to work at the Technical Services desk. Again, I don't know why they called it that. My interview was a five minute meeting with one of the library coordinators and I spent more time filling out my hiring paperwork than I did answering questions about my experience. Thank god though. I was terribly under qualified and insanely overly awkward.
On my first day my then boss Jessica, met me in the lobby and brought me to the top floor that showcased beautiful views of downtown Savannah. The Jen Library faces a historic theater and an ice cream shop. The southern charm is intoxicating. I couldn't believe I got to work here. And then she led me to an office in the way back with no windows and a view of concrete blocks and I thought to myself, "Yeah this seems more like it." I loved that job. Still on my resume it's the job I refuse to take off even though it was ten years ago and shows nothing about my actual skills. It was the first time I worked with what felt like real adults (a statement that I can hear them all laugh at, especially the boss I had the longest Katie), and had responsibilities that included deadlines. Real deadlines! A dream!
My job was to process incoming books. You know when you get library books and there's the sticker with the complicated letter and number sequence on the spine? That was my job. Let me clarify: I didn't make the complicated letter and number sequence. I was just a student for crying out loud. No, my job was to stick that sticker and a few others to the book and then bring them down to the circulation desk to get shelved. It was incredibly easy and I got to listen to hours of This American Life and be paid to do it! A dream! (That photo of me btw is from 2010 after I got to take home all the covers from the children's book we ordered for an illustration class. Remember taking photos on the Photobooth app on your Mac? A relic I say!)
One of the best parts of that job were the people I got to work with and the books I got to see. Every person that I worked with was so unbelievably kind and invested in what I was doing at work and in school. Even if they faked their interest, they did a hell of a job in making me feel loved and supported (Hi Katie!). The other best part of that job were the books. I've always loved books, but this job got me to L-O-V-E books. SCAD got new shipments of art and design books constantly. As an art student completing upwards of 20-30 projects every term, I hit blocks constantly. But then I got to go to my job and could flip through hundreds of new books on every type of artist and every type of medium. A dream! Even on slow days where I got put on shelf reading duties (literally where you see if all the complicated letter and number sequences are in order on the shelves) I got to stop and flip through books and even sneak a read in the stacks (Hi Katie! Sorry Katie!).
I think about my student workers now and wonder what they will think about their jobs ten years from now. I hope they know that I absolutely knew when they were working on their knitting instead of reading the work manual for errors. Or that the moments when they came into the office to tell me about a hard chemistry test and I got to play cheerleader and root for them were actually high points of the day for me. Or during their initial training when I would say, "No really, you can come and ask me questions all day. You're not interrupting me," that they were actually interrupting me, but I didn't care because I genuinely loved talking to them about anything. Or that they make it easy to believe in all my hopes and dreams because when you're around bright students who's worlds are still new and taking form, you can't help but catch the high from them too. Listen, this work is hard. Folks in Student Life are underpaid and overworked almost across the board at every level. This work has so many consequences, but every day it feels like you're helping students become the type of people that tell the teacher that they're checking their kids out of class for the day. At least you hope that's what's happening.
A dream!
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