The Immigrant Called Heather...

Well ladies and gents I have officially been out in Arlington, VA for 3 weeks and 3 days and I am learning a ton. To begin with substitute teaching fell through, the amount of time that it was going to take to process my background check and than substitute teaching license (about 3 months) was just not worth the time, effort and money I'd need to put into it. So I turned to other job options, mainly temp agencies and babysitting/nannying jobs- I had no idea what I was in for.

For those of you that know me, you know that I am an extremely indecisive person. I mean when I was in high school I could never decide who to hang out with so I said yes to everyone, and you can guess how that turned out (Sorry to everyone who was a victim of that stage in my life!). You CANNOT do that with temp jobs and babysitting jobs. Its a whole new way of thinking, you have to prioritize which jobs are right for which days- whats the most cost beneficial, hourly rate, travel/distance, how are they paying, who is giving the job etc IT'S INSANE! I've made more decisions the past two weeks than I have in my entire life and at first I was not very good at it.

Exhibit A
The other day I got off the metro heading to a job, got a call from a temp agency offering me a different one. I almost had a mental breakdown, I just kept thinking- which job? Usually when this happens I just call someone and talk it through until I know what I should do, but it was 8:30 am my time! Way to early to call anyone in Utah or Ca, and everyone I know out here was at work. I almost had a mental breakdown trying to decide which job I should go to (literally I sat in indecision on a bench in the middle of the metro for a good 5 minutes watching trains go by) and than it hit me. I have now learned (Thanks to my lovely roommate Haley and that thing we like to call life) that

It's ok to say, "No".

That might be obvious to almost everyone else in the world but it's definitely a new experience for me. Besides saying no to drugs anyways, that's an easy one but saying no to jobs? To an employer? I have never done that in my life...until now. That's right I called the temp agency and said I couldn't take the job.

Its not just about jobs either, its about interviews. Choosing which ones for which days, which ones are ok to reschedule, which you should stay committed too. I've decided, interviews are like small talk but with possible employers! Luckily I can see a light at the end of the tunnel, I now belong to two temp agencies and two babysitting websites. As a result this week I've had one side job (stuffing envelopes with immigrants from Congo and Mongolia, wicked awesome.), two temp jobs (one of which included being a receptionist at a bilingual school- I am not bilingual so I spent most of the day butchering the Spanish language and asking "Who would you like to talk to? Nombre? Nombre?), and two babysitting jobs (YAY!!), and I have three more interviews on Saturday with other families.

While its been a scheduling/decision insanity fest, I feel really grateful to be getting work and making money so quickly. I am also growing as a person, in that I can now say no to a job and not feel bad (although to be honest I'm not perfect at that yet, I'm putting off saying no to a babysitting job right now...AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH! I'm a jerk.) AND I am having super cool experiences, and meeting tons of people I would never meet otherwise. So while life is crazy right now, I wouldn't change it for anything.