| By :
Mark Etinger
When I was younger I told myself I'd never work in an office. I'd never sit at an office reception desk. I wanted to see the world. I wanted to live on a farm and work in the hot sun and feel the dirt underneath my fingernails and be happy to have done a day's work. That was during the romanticism of my youth. I had graduated college and wanted to go abroad. There were a few thousand dollars in my savings account from selling shoes at the mall and I wanted to go somewhere far-flung; Norway, India, Australia. There were plenty of options and the world was my oyster. I arrived in Barcelona and began to look for work. I had a work permit for six months, and after that I figured I could move rooms and go to another country. I wanted to work in a restaurant; I figured my Spanish was good enough, but my accent must have been strong. They offered me a job washing dishes. Reluctant, but determined to find something better, I took it. It was terrible work. I remember standing for hours at a time washing dishes until my fingers hurt. I was bored and often found myself lost in my own thoughts. I barely had enough money to buy myself food during the week; the only reason I stayed was because I got discounted meals at the restaurant. I was scared to quit and be unable to find a new job, and I didn't have time to search during the day since my hours were so long. I worked so hard I didn't have time to meet people my age. My only night off was Monday and I walked around the city looking for places to go. In retrospect it was fun, but at the time I was lonely. Finally my six months was up. I had decided I'd had enough. I went back home and began looking for work office filing or doing some other menial task. I found a job in a doctor's office at an office reception desk. The work wasn't terribly tedious; I found myself talking to other people on the phone and in person and the days passed quickly enough. My salary was good and I had plenty of benefits. One day the doctor asked me what I really wanted to do. He suggested being a nurse or a teacher. He put the bug in my ear and it grew. Today I'm finishing my master's in teaching and I'm readier to settle down. The wandering life is fun for a while, but it was the real world work that helped me determine my purpose in life. Thanks to sitting at an office reception desk, I decided that I would change the lives of kids, rather than trying to constantly change my own.
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