My Job Situation - A Reflection

I'll be starting my second week at the new job tomorrow and, I must admit, I'm feel much better about the whole thing that I was a week ago.

While I'm still not 100% thrilled with the idea of getting up every morning, going somewhere for the whole day and doing what other people tell me to do, well, that's why they call it work and why they have to pay you to do it, right?

It's certainly not what I had in mind when I made the decision, last summer, to leave OldJob and go to work for Bluestate Dems, but my priorities have changed since then.

It's a bit frustrating at times, that there are a few people who I know through my political work who want to be indignant on my behalf that I've not landed a political job. As many times as I tell them that that's just not what I want to do right now, I don't think they believe me.

There were actually several campaign jobs - and one job with the state party - that I probably could've had if I'd wanted them, but I didn't apply because I'd realized by then that I don't want the kind of travel and hours involved, and I can't commit to having that kind of involvement in '08, since I'm hoping to be otherwise occupied.

It's kind of hard to explain that to people with whom I don't want to share the baby plan just yet. However, I've found that if I say that "I don't want to commit yet to what I'll be doing for the '08 cycle," they assume that I'm holding out for a presidential campaign, and accept that.

Some folks also want to be indignant on my behalf that I didn't get (or haven't yet been offered) StateJob, but the idea of working for the state was never a long-term plan. It was originally just a stop-gap until I figured out what I wanted to do for '08, anyway.

I was actually quite relieved that it didn't work out, because I think TutoringCenter is a better fit for me, and I was worried that if I turned down StateJob, it would piss off the people who were worked so hard to get it for me.

TutoringCenter is probably not the be-all, end-all job, where I want to stay til I retire but, so far, it's shaping up to be a situation that I can live with.

It's still an hour commute, but at least there's a possibility of moving closer, which I wouldn't have in the politcal arena (nothing closer than CapitalCity - also an hour away) and the schedule is so much better.

I can to wait up for Shrike most evenings, and on days that I work "regular-ass" hours, I can stop and have dinner with her on my way home. We did that Monday, and it was great. We plan to make a habit of it, at least once a week.

Also, I can pretty much pick and choose which evenings I work, and they seem to be very understanding about my other commitments that I have to schedule around.

After a week, I'm feeling much more secure about it than I was the first couple of days. I'm starting to catch on to things, I like the people I'm working with, and - dare I say it - I'm actually enjoying myself.

I do love the political stuff, but I'm still very much doing that, on a volunteer level, so it's not like that need is going unfulfilled.

And, as much as I love that, I've been reminded this week that I also love teaching - not so much being a public school teacher (which I did for 9 years) but the actual part about teaching people things. I've had an opportunity to teach 3 evenings this week, and it's been hard work, but very rewarding.

On Friday, ED2 was saying "I've been watching you with the kids and I can tell you really enjoy it."

I said "I do. And I also love bossing people around, so this is perfect for me!"

So, after lots of ups and downs and changes of mind over the last six months or so, for the moment, at least, I'm pretty happy with where I've ended up.