a new part time job (now with regular paychecks!) (8/22/14)

That title sounds excited.  My actual mood is more close to "terrified."  Is terrified a subset of excited?  Maybe it still works.  A few days ago I received a job offer for a secretarial position (administrative assistant, because we can't call them secretaries anymore...) at Hope Network's Center for Autism.  Hope Network is a large organization devoted to helping people with disabilities function in society.  This job itself seems mostly simple enough.  16 hour week, 4 days/a week for 4 hours, starting annoyingly early in the morning and going 'til just before noon.  (Any time before 8am is annoyingly early).  Phone answering, data entry, scheduling appointments, that sort of thing.  Actually, I'm hilariously overqualified.  I have a minor in a cross between computer science and business and a degree in psychology, and all they wanted was familiarity with MS Office and a high school diploma.

But I was describing my terror.  Next week looks like this:  Monday I return to Michigan after a couple week visit to CT for family reasons.  Tuesday I go do a drug screening and desperately unpack and pretend I'm not terrified, because Wednesday I spend several hours meeting and greeting people at Hope Network.  Thursday I go into intensive training for Hope Network's practices and "how we do things" etc, for SEVEN hours.  Friday I spend four hours learning how to do first aid, so even more new people.  And after all that exhausting people-intensive stuff?  Saturday I go to a bachelorette party and get no sleep.  That's a lot of chances to annoy, upset, worry, or frustrate people.  At least the Monday after all that is Labor Day, but after that I do another 7 hour stint, and the day after I apparently start work.  

Except for the week and a half through the emotional and cognitive wringer, this is a good development.  Or should be.  Most of my present part time jobs do not include any form of job security.  My pay is variable, dependent on other peoples' schedules, etc.  Any money is better than none, because bills tragically do not pay themselves, but it'll be nice to have a regular paycheck coming in every week or two.  The downside is that large companies like Hope Network often have very strict, bureaucratic policies.  I dislike brittle systems.  Often I don't fit into them.  I had that problem at Walmart, when I worked there over the summer.  I was so different than everyone else, they didn't understand me and didn't try.  I certainly hope that Hope Network will be different, considering their focus, but only time will tell.  

I do find the concept of having an autistic person at the front desk of a place called "Center for Autism" amusing.  I'll mainly be dealing with parents, as the kids in question will be 5 or younger.  But it'll be a good experience anyway, I think.  And it may reassure some of the parents to see a functional, apparently healthy person on the spectrum handling a normal job.  I can't personally vouch for any of the therapy they do in the building, because I wasn't diagnosed until midway through college.  Hard to get therapy if no one knows you need therapy.  But still, I do know their ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) is proven to improve functioning.  Maybe that'll be enough.  

Maybe I'll be enough.