My Last Monday of Custodial Work at the MTC

I'm quitting my custodial job at the end of the week! Wahoo! I am so excited. I have plans to work at two other jobs on campus during the fall semester, jobs that use my BRAIN! Ha! I have been working as a custodian for the last 16 months, and I'm sooooooo ready to do something else. I've had other jobs as well, during those months, but I've always needed to have two jobs in order to get all the hours (and money) I needed to support myself. I was a full-time custodian last summer. Then last fall I only worked at the MTC part-time. Then during Winter Semester I was able to get a TA job for a linguistics class. My first job that really used what I was going to school for! This summer I've been working at the National Middle East Language Resource Center (NMELRC) while I've been working at the MTC. And this coming fall I'll still be working at the NMELRC, and I'll have a TA job for an ESL writing class! I've been volunteering in this class all summer long, while I've been working my other two jobs, so it will feel sooooo good to get paid for what I've been doing for free. And this is finally coming to fruition, now that I'm on my last week of work.

Through all of this work, I have come to realize the benefits and drawbacks of having both brainless and brain-full jobs: Brainless jobs don't require much mental effort and you can leave your work worries behind when you're done for the day, but you have a TON of time to think about things that are worrisome or unimportant so it feels like a waste of your time. A brain-full job is intellectually stimulating, but you sometimes need to think and plan on your personal time. I think I definitely prefer the brain-full job.

This morning, though, a used my brainless time at the MTC to do something kind of fun: I wrote a poem. Actually, I started a poem, and then finished it this afternoon. It's about a vacuum...

A Friendly Reminder

A vacuum is generally an ally in the war for cleanliness.
The bristles
The intimidating whir
The unstoppable suck of the vacuum are all favorable parts of the tool.

But today the vacuum was my enemy;
The POW (Panasonic on Wheels) struggled against me at every step of the way.
It's cord took a strangle hold on the bottom of the door, jerking me to a stop.
It's handle slipped off, tripping me up the stairs.
And the dirty carpet, inches away from my face, was a reminder of the reason
I should never cross the vacuum.


I never said it was good, but it was fun to write! I'd like to start writing some more poetry this coming semester, during all that "spare time" I'll have between working, going to school, finding a job for after graduation, and finding a new place to live in December. Not to mention trying to have a social life.