Ohhhhh the Jobs We've Had!

If you heard the podcast yesterday, you heard me talk about my brief adventure as a church secretary. When my sister listened to the podcast, she texted me and said, "Did I know you'd been a church secretary?" Clearly it was one of my more successful careers. ;)

But that made me think that sometimes it can be kind of fun to hear what sorts of jobs people have had in the past. So today I thought I'd give you a peek at the jobs Ryan and I have had throughout our 40ish years. Wanna see?

Bekah:

* Babysitter. I began babysitting when I was eleven. My little niece was my first babysitting charge! I actually did this all the way through junior high, high school, and college. I had a handful of families that called on me regularly. (Fun fact: one of the families lived in a men's dorm on the IWU campus. The dad in that family was the resident director of the dorm. A few times, they had to travel out of town and were gone for a whole night. I took great pleasure in going to school and telling my friends I'd stayed in a guys' dorm over the weekend. Ha!) I really loved this job. It was one of my favorites.

* Church Secretary. As I said on the podcast yesterday, I did serve as the secretary of my (then) church for a few months. The church I attended as a child had been big and vibrant throughout my growing-up years, but by the time I got to high school, it had been through a few splits and the congregation had dwindled to just a few people. They couldn't afford (nor did they need) a full-time secretary, but they hired me to do some basic office tasks. I loved the job in terms of the work I got to do. I'd sort of always dreamed of growing up to be a secretary. (Office work still makes my heart skip a beat.) So that part was great. I didn't love some of the interpersonal drama. It was certainly true that taking that job meant seeing different sides of some folks than I normally saw, and that was both difficult and a growing up/learning experience for me.

* Office Worker. Simultaneously to the church job, I worked in a loan office for a few months. They hired me basically as a temp (though not through an agency or anything) to help cover some basic office work while one of their regular employees was off for a surgery. In that span of time, one of the employees died in an accident and they ended up keeping me a bit longer than they planned while they regrouped from his death. Coming from a life of working with babies and church people, it was quite an education for me to work in this environment. It may not have been one of my favorite jobs, but the experience (especially my friend's death) marked me and my faith journey for all time, so I am really grateful this job is part of my life story.

* Financial Aid Student Worker. When the loan company job eventually dissolved, I was in college and in need of work more than ever before. My parents made an appointment with the financial aid director to get some insights on how to help me find campus work. Turns out she needed someone to help write a manual. Guess who was a writing major? :) She hired me to write the manual, but shortly after I began working on it, busy season hit the office and another student worker had to quit, so she put me on office detail. I stayed the rest of my college career and served as a student worker in that office. I loved it. More secretarial bliss. (Didn't always love the drama, but I did love filing.)

* Financial Aid Counselor. My last semester of college, the office went through a MASSIVE turnover, and there were openings everywhere. They ended up hiring me for a counselor position, and that last semester of college, I was a full time student and also worked in the office as many hours a week as I could muster. I ended up working in that job eleven years. I hated the math, but I loved the people. It was a very hard job for me, since math is not my natural bent, but my co-workers and supervisors were gracious to find ways to help me succeed, and I did so love all the interaction with (nice) parents and students. (Cried over a few mean ones.)

* Radio Producer and Personality. I spent four years in radio and loved it. Honestly thought I'd stay in the industry the rest of my life. God had other plans for me, but those four years were such a sweet time. I loved the office work part of the job, because I got to organize to my heart's content! And I found out I also loved the on-air part. The whole combination was a most-perfect fit for my personality and gifts.

* Speaker and Writer. And now I speak and write, and while I do both on a freelance basis, I love both jobs. I love the opportunity to help support our home through this kind of work, but I also love the freedom I have to let other parts of life take precedence, like right now when we have so much going on with Ryan's mom. I love the chance to travel around, share about the Lord, meet new people, and write for audiences of people I may never meet in real life. Grateful for this season!


Ryan:

* Hog and Grain Farmer/Everything. Ryan grew up on a hog farm, so even though he didn't own it, he worked on it. Where the pigs were concerned, he helped with everything from birthing them to taking them to market. (There were LOTS of details in that timeline, but trust me, you probably don't want to know some of them.) He also helped bale straw, plant, harvest, pull weeds, pick up rocks, and other duties as assigned. I'm sure you can guess that on a farm, there were a lot of duties as assigned.

* Grocery Store Dishwasher, Bag Boy, and Stock Boy. At age 16, Ryan got a car, so he needed a job to pay for it. He got a job in a little grocery store in our home town, and it also happened to have a bakery in it, just in case you're wondering why people wash dishes in a grocery store. He stocked all the dairy products, bagged the groceries and carried them out for the little old ladies, washed the dishes for the bakery area, and mopped the floors every night.

* Car Wash Guru. In his high school summers, he added a car wash job to his grocery store job. He thought the job would be a great way to get a tan in the summer, because his buddy told him he didn't have to wear a shirt to work. His buddy lied. He did get tan LINES, though! He ended up primarily working as the car sweeper, and he loved it. He also learned a lot about what not to do in life from his co-workers, many of whom carried a criminal record. (He does still love to wash and detail, so this works out really well for me.)

* Mattress Maker. After high school, Ryan had no desire to go to college or to work on the farm, so his aunt helped him get a job in a local mattress factory. He started at the entry level, building mattresses and worked his way up to plant manager. He ended up being there ten years and enjoyed most of his time there. (Fun fact: he made the mattress we have. Fun fact #2: If we go to one of the resale stores here in town, he always looks through the mattresses to see if he made any of them. He can still recognize his own sewing work and can tell you if he made the mattress.)

* Snack Cake/Bread Delivery Guy. He left the mattress factory in search of bigger and better things, and discovered he didn't pick the right next step. The job was short-lived: he lasted six months, and that was about five and a half months too long. The job just didn't turn out to be what he had been told it would be. He never had his own route and spent that entire time filling in when other drivers called off. He had to learn all the routes and would often get calls at one in the morning to come in and start working. Miserable!

* Distribution Center Case Picker. Right about the time he couldn't take it in the snack cake world anymore, a new grocery distribution center opened relatively near where we live, so he went to a job fair and was hired as part of the original team. He worked in the refrigerated section, and spent all day every day picking cases of food. He drove a pallet machine around, listening to the little lady in the headset, who would tell him how much of what items to pick. He said when he hired in, they told him it was like baling straw in the cold, and they were right! (And his life came full circle, apparently.) All the cases he picked were different sizes, though, so it was like a game of Tetris, stacking them all up. (Fun fact: to this day, when we pass cases of food on pallets in the grocery store, he silently evaluates the Tetris work. And also, sometimes not silently.) He loved the job, but he knew if he did that forever, it would physically wear him out. It was fast-paced, physical work.

* Physical Therapist Assistant. So....he decided he would try his hand at college, and went back to school at age 29. He became a PTA and took a job at the rehab hospital where he still works today! He's so good at what he does, and his personality is well-suited for working with people who are trying to get well. He has a great blend of knowledge, compassion, humor, and encouragement, and his patients love him!


I'm sure none of this information will ever pop up in a trivia game, but hopefully you had fun reading along!

You have any fun/unique jobs in your past? Tell me!