I said I couldn't do it. I couldn't face one more semester in this hostile work environment, especially not with Spring approaching, notoriously the worst time of the year for student behavior.
Did anyone really think things would turn out differently for me than they always have? Of course I'm on the schedule again... and it turns out I'm not the only one who has asked/begged not to be placed on this particular campus again due to the student behavior, ensuring that I will be shoved into this slot over and over as more people leave, since I don't have the luxury of demanding to be placed at a different campus "or else I won't come back." I don't have another job. I need the money. I'm the only one willing to take this kind of abuse. Well, not "willing" exactly, but I don't have a choice.
The "good news" if there is any, is I'll only have one section, and on Saturday morning. This leaves me lots of free time and flexibility to find and work another job, maybe some crap minimum wage job that will undoubtedly suck, but will probably be less stressful and pay as much or more. There's only one small problem with that. It would have to be possible for me to find another job, even a crap one.
I've always "loved" how people say "get a job" as if it's just that simple. We no longer live in an age where you can walk into any store and remove the 'help wanted' sign from the window, and you have a job. We no longer even live in an age where you can walk into a McDonald's, fill out an application, and automatically get that job. And I'm someone with reliable transportation, no convictions, and an able (if crappy) body... I'm what used to be the bare criteria for hire-ability in a dead end job.. but none of that cuts it anymore. Just "get a job"? Only one reply seems appropriate to that condescending advice...
So this summer, I strap on my job helmet and finally search for some crappy, dead-end minimum wage job, since this whole library science thing worked out so well. Wish me luck. Or death, I'll take death, actually...
