Work...Enough said

Sometimes I like to pretend like work doesn't exist. But since, as I've said, this will probably be the only journal/scrapbook/family history my posterity will ever see at this point, I guess it wouldn't be accurate if I didn't mention the one activity that I have spent more time doing aside from sleeping over the last 3 1/2 years than any other ...and that's work.

I feel really lucky to be able to say that for the last 3 or so years, I have loved my job. Sure I've had my ups and downs with it, but when all is said and done, I always believe in the work that I do, and go home thinking that I can't believe I get paid for it.

I graduated in Psychology, so I knew the chances of me finding a job that was even remotely related to my field, that I actually enjoyed, was slim. And the craziest part of it, was that I found my job in the newspaper, submitted a resume and then kind of forgot about it. (Who finds a good job in the newspaper these days?) Luckily, Hilary, who was in my ward at the time, and had been the visiting teaching supervisor before me, was one of the people who interviewed me. I'm sure that without that connection I wouldn't have stood a chance, because it was not a great interview for me.

Over the last 3 years my job responsibilities have changed about as often as the weather changes in Utah. :) But here's the basic rundown...

When I was hired my 2 main responsibilities were to teach parents how to be better parents one-on-one in their homes, and present an abuse prevention curriculum in elementary schools called Good Touch/Bad Touch. Then a few months later I had a parenting class in the county jail added to my job description. I was also in charge of all of the booths that we did in the community to get information out about our center. About a year and a half later, I started overseeing the children's anger management classes that we teach in our center. A little while later, I stopped doing booths, and teaching the jail parenting class. Then about a year later, I started supervising all of the children's programs at our center (including the 2 that I already mentioned, and the children's component of the Stepfamily class that we teach.) And now, since having Meili I do all of the same stuff minus Good Touch/Bad Touch and I work 20 hours a week. Man, writing about work is almost as boring as actually being at work!

I'm grateful that I've had this job because it's pushed me in so many different areas. I am more comfortable talking with anyone (from jail inmates, to very well educated parents, to not-so-well educated parents, to kids.) Although, I know that I will be nowhere near a perfect parent, I have learned a lot about parenting, which will benefit me more in my life than any other job skill I would learn somewhere else. I've also learned a lot of things that people wouldn't necessarily associate with my job, like computer skills and advertising. And, like I said before, even though I don't get paid a lot, at the end of the day, it's nice to really believe in what you're doing.

These are the beautiful women that I'm fortunate enough to work with.