I Went To College For This?

Years ago I had two buttons for my bulletin board at work. Each morning I would select one and stick it up so people knew what kind of day I was having and therefore what kind of mood I was in. One said, “I can’t believe I get paid for this.” The other said, “I can’t believe I went to college for this.”

Tonight I have spent the last three hours putting labels and stamps on postcards for the garden tour. Yes, I could get a volunteer to do it. But the cards were ready at 8 p.m. tonight and I need to get them in the mail. I don’t have the luxury of figuring out when the stars will align and things will be ready for a volunteer that I have to request a week in advance. Nor do I think I could get one at 10:30 p.m. So, I end up doing things like this myself.

I’m at 627 postcards and counting.

I have the bonus of the extra step of putting on an additional stamp since the rates just went up again.

And, yes, in case you were wondering, I do have a college degree. Two, actually. One in journalism and one in telecommunications. My current job is in the mental health field. You may be saying, “Huh?” Yeah, me too sometimes, but I use skills from my previous careers everyday.

When you run a non profit, you have to be able to do a lot of different things. I designed the card, worked with the printer to get it out to specs, and now I’m sitting at my computer with Alton Brown on the TV while I slap labels on. I also organized the garden tour. (That would fall into the category of “special event planning” if you’re looking for the resume lingo.) Did I mention that I truly like my job? It’s an honor to be involved in people’s lives the way I am. These things just facilitate the real work.

Nonetheless, it’s definitely a “I can’t believe I went to college for this” kind of night.

I’ll ponder that while I drive these to the post office before the 2 a.m. pickup. While there I need to go make an adjustment to the garden tour sign posted at Main and A. Is my life glamorous or what?