Whistle While You Work

After I graduated high school, I headed off to our local college on my way to my very own Organizational Leadership and Supervision degree. Soon after that, while shopping at the mall one day, my roommate and I were recruited while walking by an Abercrombie & Fitch store. We were looking for part time jobs, and so we took the ones that were eagerly offered to us. And the rest is history.

I quickly moved up through the ranks and I was promoted to a manager in training, then an assistant manager, and then a store manager, in charge of over 80 employees and four other managers, all before I was 21. And in my spare time, I went to college.

Of course, I didn't have much spare time...I transferred my classes online and I worked about 80 hours a week. I remember one run where I worked 37 days in a row without a day off. After I met, interviewed, hired, and eventually started dating my future husband, he worked in another store in the mall, but he would fill in at my store when I needed help. And, you know, so we could actually see each other once in a while.

I could go into more detail about the kind of stuff I was in charge of, but suffice it to say it was a lot. I was a hard worker, and work was my life.

Then of course, came marriage and kids and I walked away from the retail world. For the past almost six years I have been a hard working in a very different sense, as I have been working hard to raise my kids, and to be a good wife (while I was one, that is). My work goals have not been focused on sales and floor design but on teaching and loving and raising children. It is a messier, crazier, much more rewarding job than I have ever had before. I love it. I thought that this would be my only job for a long time.

Today, though, I will be branching out.

Today I'll be starting a new job. Which has me shaking in my boots a little.

It's nothing too serious...it's a serving job at a local restaurant that I've been frequenting since we moved down here, and the opportunity came out of the blue last weekend. But everything has kind of come together to make it possible for me to do this, and so tonight is my first night of training.

It's been a long time since I've had to work for someone else, and I may not be good at it anymore. I served all through high school, and I'm hoping I'm still capable of being pleasant and remembering things. That part may be difficult, actually, as my brain has definitely gone downhill these past few years!

Between my mom and John, I should be able to have the hours I work covered, and I'm hoping that this will be a blessing to all of us.

Of course, now I have to run to make the kids an early dinner, shower, get dressed, clean the house, and fit what usually takes 3 hours into 1 hour so I can make it there on time. Unfortunately getting a job outside the home doesn't make the work inside any less!

Wish me luck, please!