Notes on the Last Day at the Office

I finished my schoolwork in late March this year. I was excited to be done, after all, it was the end of my high school days. I then began looking for work. (Mistake #1 - Don't wait until you are done with school before looking for a job) My art teacher had said that there was this Christian arts and music camp that was hiring for the summer. So I applied there first, kind of assuming I would get to work there since my teacher recommended me and said that I had the job. I didn't apply anywhere else and April came and was passing fast. I wasn't hearing back from the camp, so my mom told me to apply other places. Still pretty confident that I had the camp job landed, I applied to a local restaurant and Giant.

Well today ends my days working my office job. I just got back from a dentist appointment (those are fun), and thought I'd do a little post about my work experience while I have the time. I don't know how much time I'll have to blog while I'm at college, hopefully at least once a week.

I've learned a lot working at this office. I want to share the story of how I got this job, because I feel it marked an important checkpoint in my life about trusting God.


It was late April when I finally heard back from the camp. I wasn't hired due to a lack of space for more positions, they simply had filled everything with returning staff. This was a shock and a huge disappointment - I was really looking forward to working at the camp, and thought I had my summer planned out. But God had other plans for me.

Frantically I applied to around 20 other places, freaking out. I needed money for college, and the Penn State students would be taking all the jobs soon. I applied at Giant again, who I later called and they had apparently "lost" my application.

By the second week of May, I had given up. As a last hope, I applied to Giant again. They called me in less than 5 hours of me submitting my application and wanted to schedule an interview. I was so incredibly happy and thankful - I thought I was on Cloud 9. I got the job at Giant, and thought that my life was perfect (well nearly).
My mom then called me one day the next week after I started at Giant and said that a family friend had found a place for me at an office of a company that someone in our church owns. I was hesitant at first - I had the Giant job and I wanted to keep it. I then realized that I needed money - so I interviewed and got the internship position there. I really wanted to keep Giant, so I switched my availability with them to nights, hence why I have two jobs and work 12-15 hour days and nearly 60 hours a week.

But you see, I was so worried about finding a job when God was in control the whole time. He had a bigger picture in mind, while I only focused on the fact I wasn't working at the camp I wanted to. I was over-blessed. I wanted a job really bad - I needed a job really bad - and I got two. Too much job.

Retail Adventures

This week is my last week working both my jobs - I'm going to come back and work once every 28 days (to stay on the payroll) and breaks at Giant, however. Working retail has been an experience, and I'm glad I did it - I've learned a lot of life skills.

Last night I had some adventures. It was already a weird night - I had been doing miscellaneous stuff since I arrived for my shift. I was hired as a cashier, but when the one manager Damien is working, he has me do all kinds of stuff. Which I don't really mind - he's my favorite manager anyways - but it can be a lot of work. 

(Giant literally called me while I was writing this post and asked me to come in two hours early...)

Our closing register wasn't working correctly last night - which ended up being a pain in the neck since Damien had to nag the tech people for permission to open another register's till (You're not supposed to after 10:30, but he had no choice - the register wasn't taking any card payments correctly).

There's a girl my manager that I can't stand - she flirts with him and annoys me constantly. I don't show that I don't like her, I'm actually pretty nice - but she hates me because Damien talks to me more. (which is stupid since she's still sixteen and he's 20) She tells me to shut up, won't bag for me even though it's her job, etc. So she was there last night causing all sorts of problems by hitting the manager call button and laughing as my manager came over to see who needs help. 

The highlight of the night was the homeless guy who we got a cab for. Which cost me 20 bucks I really couldn't afford. I'll admit, a small part of me wanted to say no to helping him out. But hey, I'm doing this for a good cause, it's what Jesus would have done, and if I'm short money He will provide me with what I need - He always has. So I came to peace with it and was glad I was able to help since no one else had any money apparently.

Anyways, those were my adventures in retail. I know, not really all that exciting. But hey, I had nothing else to blog about today.

I Meet People

As I mentioned in the last post, meeting people is not one of my favorite things. I don't socialize very well and try to avoid socializing situations because I will replay moments where I believe I've done something embarrassing forever and ever in my head afterwards. Kind of a self-torture in a way. As I look on this now, a lot of those moments probably didn't matter to anyone else anyway and honestly, I was being kind of stupid. 

Anyway, I also said in the last post that working at Giant has helped grow my socializing skills. I wanted to expand on this, hence this post. I used to be very afraid to even say hello to strangers, make eye contact, or even smile. Now as a cashier, this is sort of required, and I quickly realized within the first 5 minutes of my first shift that I was going to have to get used to talking to people. I thought this would take me a while to get over, but in fact, it only took a couple of months. 

Now, putting aside the fact that every time I go into Giant I feel this adrenaline and a strong urge to smile and say hi to every stranger I see, I am now not afraid to talk to people anymore. I still haven't gotten over my fear of guys...That one has always been harder, and hopefully it will change at college. But I've changed, and my personality has changed a little for the better. (I think)

Alright, Let's Get Caught Up Part I

Hi people!
So, I haven't been able to post much due to the fact that my life is really busy right now. But I thought I would give you all an update on what I've been doing. Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted since March.

OK, so I graduated High School. (That's something, right) - Graduation was interesting, since I was cyber schooled, I met my fellow class men for the first time. Kind of weird, but it was actually fun. I had my graduation party the same day, and that was amazing.

I now have two jobs. One, I work at Giant Food Stores, and the other is an office job where I do cool computer stuff and all that jazz. To be honest working both these jobs at the same time is really stressing me out and I hope I don't have to do the same thing next summer. But college is expensive, so I do what I want to do.

Ah the retail life...Working a shift at Giant can be either really fun or really annoying and long. It really is only one extreme or the other. There's people you get along with really well, and then there's the people who you can't stand. Honestly I think it's really good experience, and for the most part it can be kinda fun. But the other employees really make or break it.

There's a couple of guys that really like to give me a hard time, which pushes me way out of my comfort zone considering I'm really terrible talking to guys in general. But it's getting me ready for college life, so it's good.

Anyways there's part 1...I'll post again later.