some sunny day

[thez]

New Job is going very well, and I'm continuing to work at CVS at least once a month because 1) the employee discount is useful, 2) so I can keep up my community pharmacy skills, 3) I actually like my coworkers, 4) it makes me appreciate New Job even more, and 5) after being unemployed for so much of my life it feels really good to have two jobs.

I was working there this Saturday (day 13 of my 13 day work week! v(°∇°)v), and I'm very glad for it, because otherwise I may have never had the chance to say my final goodbye to one of my favorite patients.

He's a liver transplant patient who's been coming in since I started working there over two years ago. Back then he was the happiest guy in the world, excited to be alive and excited to be talking to people! And especially me! And I was always excited to be talking to him as well. We bonded over a mutual appreciation of each other's dumb and/or awkward jokes. He was pleasant, courteous, the sort of person who was happy to see other people happy.

He still IS that person, but he's been walking more and more slowly. It's much harder for him to get his words out, and there's always pain on his face. He has the desperate look of someone being drawn more and more inward by their own body as it shuts down.

We talked. He asked me about my new job. "Is this a step in the right direction for you? Are you happy?" Yes! "I'm glad to hear that, I truly am."

It was lucky I saw him that day. His sister usually picks up his medicine for him now.

Just before he left, he told me, "I hope I see you again someday, if not in a drug store... then maybe somewhere else."

And I went in the back and cried. And I went to the speakeasy alone that night. I ordered a champagne cocktail and honey fig gorgonzola toast -- delicious -- and ate it very slowly. I wrote in my notebook and people-watched and swayed to the live music.

As I left, I was staring at the full moon and humming the last song I heard in there, trying to place it, when it hit me: "Did I severely overestimate my alcohol tolerance, or was that a 20s jazz rendition of Killing Me Softly?"

I'll have to tell him about it if I ever see him again.

Comments

[mindsplinters]

*hugs*

[prodigy]

I hope you do get to see him again, one way or another, and I'm glad you got to see him then at least. ♥

[randombees]

I just wanted to say, I've been thinking about your situation and how you went about making your own life better. If you don't mind me asking, but, you did this sans college education, correct? (Sorry if that's a touchy question, you are not obliged to answer me either way. I'm doing this to compile the people I know who've made their lives really awesome despite having no college education!)

[thez]

That is correct! I did some years in community college and even a semester or two at UofA (holy geez I honestly cannot remember how many at the moment), but I never got an associate's degree, let alone a bachelor's. In some ways it's still a touchy subject (for example, I chafe really easily when I feel that people who have bachelor's degrees don't acknowledge how lucky and/or privileged they are to have them) but it's not a touchy question and overall I'm comfortable talking about it.

That is an interesting thing to compile! May I ask why? :D

[randombees]

I'm interested in publicly debunking the consensus that people can only succeed or be valuable if they have a college degree, and your experience also has value to someone like me who might be trying to go somewhere their degree wasn't going to take them. How did you get your CVS job, and then how did that lead to the course that allowed you to work with radioactive materials?

[thez]

The CVS job was an entry-level job, so it was pretty easy to get. I had the minimum of a high school degree and basic retail experience. I was unemployed and applying everywhere at the time, and they were just the first to offer me a job.

Once I had been with the company in pharmacy services for a year, I was eligible to have them pay for me to take the PTSB exam and become a certified pharmacy technician, so I took advantage of that (at CVS, only the lead pharmacy technician requires certification). After I passed the certification exam, I started looking at job listings, and the nuclear pharmacy position was literally the first one to pop up, so I applied for it on a whim. During the interview I found out that certification wasn't even a prerequisite for the job, but I'm sure it didn't hurt.

So, a lot of dumb luck really, though knowing how to sell myself during an interview is a useful skill. And that's because I've been on a lot of interviews, because I've held sooo many different jobs. That in itself is definitely a hindrance, because I don't (or, didn't) have long-term experience in any one type of job setting (plus, not encouraging to employers who are looking for a long-term investment). I had to turn that into an advantage by emphasizing the diverse array of skills it gave me, which I could also translate to "I pick up new skills very quickly".

The biggest disadvantage by far was not having a college degree, which so often gets a resume thrown in the trash without even being looked at even for jobs where no college degree is necessary. Interview skills are nothing when you can't even score an interview.

If you have any more questions or wanted to discuss this anymore I'd be happy to oblige, hopefully in a more timely manner this time.

[randombees]

Erm, and re-reading my reply, it doesn't look entirely respectful, so I would like to acknowledge that I was extremely privileged to have been afforded a chance at college. The experience itself was valuable to me. My apologies.

I was interested in possibly following what you did for your career path. I'm also interested in the concepts of self-teaching and you're a strong example of that to me.