What If
What Sarah Wilson-Jones said in the comments of this post has been weighing on my mind for a while. There is part of me that's always been disgusted by the idea that you have to be "educated" to work in a respectable profession. It's the same part of me that wishes I kicked and screamed harder when my guidance counselors in high school waved off the idea that maybe I'd like to go to Polaris instead of sit around filling my head with unusable things like calculus. But a more vocal part of me was wrapped up in the idea that you had to have an expensive degree to be somebody, and if you didn't, you weren't worth spit on the sidewalk.
Well, now that I'm educated I realize that I got a lot more pleasure out of my work when I was making whole wheat pesto bread and vegan cookies for people, when I was frothing milk and pulling shots. There was some way I connected with coffee customers more than I do with library customers - a kind of friendly/surly "my drug is thy drug and I know exactly what will happen if you don't get it" kind of understanding.
I just feel like coffee as a job had less baggage attached to it - the baggage that's associated with being a "public servant" just isn't present in retail: an angry "let me speak to the manager!" has nothing on "I'm a taxpayer, and [insert any number of petty complaints]." Let me tell you, the hidden subtext behind "I'm a taxpayer" is "you're part of 'Big Gub'mint', and you're lower than dirt, and the fact that I pay your salary means that I am entitled to break the rules by keeping this DVD out for as long as I please and don't you dare charge me a dollar a day in late fees!"
So...yeah. I don't quite know what to do with this feeling except find myself a caffeinated mentor and apprentice myself out.
Well, now that I'm educated I realize that I got a lot more pleasure out of my work when I was making whole wheat pesto bread and vegan cookies for people, when I was frothing milk and pulling shots. There was some way I connected with coffee customers more than I do with library customers - a kind of friendly/surly "my drug is thy drug and I know exactly what will happen if you don't get it" kind of understanding.
I just feel like coffee as a job had less baggage attached to it - the baggage that's associated with being a "public servant" just isn't present in retail: an angry "let me speak to the manager!" has nothing on "I'm a taxpayer, and [insert any number of petty complaints]." Let me tell you, the hidden subtext behind "I'm a taxpayer" is "you're part of 'Big Gub'mint', and you're lower than dirt, and the fact that I pay your salary means that I am entitled to break the rules by keeping this DVD out for as long as I please and don't you dare charge me a dollar a day in late fees!"
So...yeah. I don't quite know what to do with this feeling except find myself a caffeinated mentor and apprentice myself out.
posted by Christine Borne at 6:41 PM
4 Comments:
I will say that after getting my MSLS...I have been an okay junior preacher. That is a scary thing. Few want me to be a librarian. I can preach The Word fine, though. At camp I had to prepare enough sermons and presentations while teaching the Bible to all sorts of age groups (3rd grade through adult).
Have I been thinking about jumping ship and leaving the profession of librarianship for ministry? Yes. I am afraid of such, though. The nice thing about the MSLS is that it prepares me for ministry much like how the early leaders of my Christian tradition were prepared at the beginning of the 19th century.
I almost wound up working for a church plant in Brooklyn. It is too bad I could not pull that off. I could have gone from being "rogue librarian" to "junior preacher trained non-traditionally"...
I couldn't stand being a traditional librarian bound to the public good and jumped ship for corporate librarianship, which truly is a whole other world. I know it tends to be reviled in library world, but it totally is an option, and a whole other experience. You work more as colleagues with your clients, not as their servant.
I had an interesting conversation with one of my stellar employees the other day about his desire to get his college degree. I asked him why he felt so compelled to get it, and in listening to his answer I realized that I take my degree for granted. You certainly don't NEED an undergrad degree to work in coffee but I am glad I have one. It just makes me feel like I have more options, like so many doors would be open to me if I chose to pursue said doors.
And yes, there is something simple and satisfying about the coffee and food biz. Part of the charm for me is the possibility of creating something special, something different, something meaningful. And being able to see the results of my decisions. I love getting real-time, real-world feedback on my team's creativity. Some things work and some things don't, and there's nothing like the real world for helping to sort out the two.
You're right Sarah, having a degree gives you more options. I would therefore like to opt out of what I have a degree in!
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