Years Of Dedicated Service / Boredom Breeds Eternal
Today at lunch, a huge amount of people turned out for a co-worker's retirement party. The other co-ops I work with know her quite well, and though I've only met her once or twice and didn't want to "crash the party" as it were, they convinced me to come along. It was a touching tribute, as it turns out. Nearly 70 employees were there, as far as I could count, all giving her hugs and celebrating her time at the plant. She'd certainly made plenty of friends and touched a lot of lives both in her work and in her personal life. At the end of the party, her manager gave her a plaque celebrating 36 years of loyalty and dedication to her job. That is a long time, my friends. And what's more is, although she was genuinely touched by the friendship displayed today, she also said that she really enjoyed the work itself and felt that it was ultimately rewarding. She'd come in as a high school graduate and filing clerk, then worked her way up to a very comfortable position. Will I be that content with wherever I end up, I wonder?
It's a neat thing that I only have 2.5 weeks left in this latest co-op position. Why? Because I'm getting awfully close to the point of being burnt-out/apathetic/bored toward it, and that's not how I really want to approach a job. For one, it's bound to reflect on my performance (when I actually have duties), and for two, it just makes me feel bad. I really believe I've lost most of my usual motivation to do anything over the term. The only things keeping me motivated, actually, are my responsibilities at Wesley. So luckily, I'm soon going to have a long vacation, get back to what I know best at this point (taking classes), and hopefully start to get a better idea of what it is I want to do with my life after I graduate. With luck, I'll figure out something that will make me as content as our retiree was today. For now, I'll take the fun times ahead in the next year and a half.
In happy news, I am glad I got a chance to go home for a few days this past week. I really needed it, and I enjoyed myself. Sometimes home can be boring compared to the relatively fast pace of life at college, but this time it was exactly what I was hoping for. Thanksgiving really did make me stop to think about how thankful I am for everything I've got. It's good stuff. I'm not really in that gushy of a mood; I just felt like saying it.
I also have been feeling lately like my creative side has been neglected. I have all these ideas about great projects floating around my head, but I never seem to have time to flesh them out. I think whatever job I ultimately end up with will have to give me enough flexibility to explore the other things I like to do besides class and work. I'm not sure if there's really any job out there for my major that'll give me opportunities like that, but I'll do my best to find it.
I'm not sure what the point of all this was, but it seemed necessary to get it out there. Call it a peek into the dominant themes that have been running through my mind recently. A very rough first draft of them, actually. Right now, the last, best remedy I can think of for these blues is a nice, relaxing evening playing my guitar. Maybe a song or two will come out of it; Lord knows I need the practice in writing lyrics and melodies. I can never seem to combine any of the major elements together to form a coherent song that doesn't make me cringe. I only can remain hopeful that some inspiration will come to me one day, and it won't sound just like another song I've heard a couple days ago.
Coming up soon, I think I'm going to comment on the latest RIAA/downloading music situation, a current events topic that I haven't touched on in Ramble On yet. As a huge music fan, I have a vested interest in how this situation plays out. The only thing that's kept me from writing about it before is that it's SO big, a single post of my thoughts on the topic would take forever to write. So, soon.
Have a good week, everyone; I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to post again. There are plenty more picture galleries up, though, which are there solely for your viewing pleasure. I have high hopes for getting caught up on them soon. Drop me a line at my VT address if you've got any comments; my Project BS mail has been a little flakey lately. :)
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