School Days Vs Adulthood

In many ways, adulthood and school days seem very different. But in other ways, they feel similar. Today's post is about grown-up things that feel remarkably similar to annoying stuff you had to deal with in school.

 

Lectures and Lessons

 

Upon starting a new job, you often have to go through orientation. Which often consists of long speeches, and something akin to an online class. At Taco Bell, I had to go through a short course online to get a food handler's card. And when I started there, I was in the office doing a zillion lessons talking about the history of the company, their motto, their menu and how to make the food on it, how to interact with customers, which cleaning buckets to use for what, and how to die of boredom in the back of a fast food place.

It was a similar thing when I worked a retail job, too. A long spiel about the company, and what they supposedly represent, and how to do this and that... And then when we arrived to start work, the manager was showing us a PowerPoint saying some of the same stuff.

 

Also, the humane society in my area now requires volunteers to take an online course on interacting with shelter animals, and how they try to minimize stress levels for dogs and cats there. It's a lot more in-depth than when I volunteered several years ago. It felt like doing training videos for a new job.

P.E.

So, unless you're planning to become a pro football player or something, a lot of the sports might seem kind of pointless to some. You played street hockey, and all you gained were some bruises on your shins. You tried to play softball, and now your lip is bleeding. Let's face it, sports are for the athletic.

However, there is a point to some of that physical exertion, aside from the usual spiel about overweight children and the importance of exercise for good health. Ladies and gentlemen, this is preparation... for the day we enter the workforce. Scoff if you must, but have you ever bent over, knelt down, straightened up, and otherwise bobbed up and down all day grabbing stuff and putting it away? After fetching sauce packets, grabbing cleaning buckets, and other work-related tasks, I found myself sore. It took me a little while to get used to the exercise associated with a simple fast food job. And when I started a retail job after being unemployed for a while, I had to start all over again.

So, if you're in school still, and ever complain about walking and running and stretching, don't. More than likely, you'll be working a job that manages to be a workout in some way. Heck, between house-cleaning jobs and wrangling excitable shelter dogs on leashes, my lower back muscles feel kind of tight and unhappy this week. I may be skinny, but I am definitely not in shape.

Worksheets

 

I remember in elementary school, we'd be given these worksheets as homework with about a hundred math problems on them. Rows and rows, columns and columns, and it went on forever and ever...

And of course, the worksheets, quizzes, and tests, both at and after school, continued all throughout my education. But I finally graduated, so now I should be free of that infernal stuff, right?

WRONG. Adulthood is full of worksheets. We just call them paperwork, forms to fill out, and soul-sucking job applications. And it never ends. We fill things out before seeing the doctor or the dentist, we fill things out for potential jobs or volunteer work, we fill things out for insurance and government stuff, and just about everything that could possibly have a reason for a long painful form to fill out.

And just like a test, sometimes the questions are difficult or confusing. I don't know what health conditions my great-great grandfathers on my mother's side might have had. I don't recall the precise day I started this job. It was sometime around the end of June. And why does it say 'client's name (head of household)'? I'm the client, but I'm not the head of the household.