While studying to get my masters degree, I took on a position as a teacher’s assistant to help pay my tuition and living expenses.  I had always wondered what it would be like and I finally had my chance to find out.

It turns out that the role of a TA is not as glamorous as you would think.  I spent many nights up late reading thesis after thesis and assigning grades to them.  Though each dissertation that I read is interesting, it can be sometimes very tedious correcting their work, their spelling and making suggestions to them on how to improve their work.

It is even more frustrating checking to see if any of the students in the class have submitted custom term papers that they purchased online.  If we do catch a student that has done such a thing, they are sent to the Dean immediately and risk expulsion from the school.

I can honestly say that being a TA is definitely not what I thought it would be.  But on a brighter note, it definitely beats flipping burgers to pay the rent.

While I was flipping through the television channels tonight, I came across an interesting show that I think that I will watch from now on.  The show follows real people through their career choices and looks if what they thought they wanted to be when they grew up was actually what they became.

It sure seemed like an interesting premise as most of us don’t become what we set out to be.  This was exactly the case for the study of this weeks show.

You see, the lady that was on the show had always had dreams of becoming a Marine Biologist.  But, as it turned out, she would have had to go to a college far away from her home and the price would have been out of her reach.

So, instead, she went to her hometown college and became a Dietician instead.  Her story was very interesting and I could relate to it, since I didn’t become what I had set out to be either.

I am looking forward to watching the show next week - I wonder how it will turn out.

One of my best friends always invites me out to play golf, but I don’t go.  You see, I have never played the game (besides mini-golf), and I don’t know where to start.  But for me, part of the challenge I have is most of the people from work play, and quite often we have business meetings while playing a round.

I just found out the other day that the rest of the office has pooled together to come up with the money to get me a set of golf clubs.  In fact, they presented them to me on Friday’s board meeting.

I was shocked, and I didn’t know what to say.  It was one of the most thoughtful gifts anyone had ever got me, but I had to ask if any of them would give me some golf instruction.

As it turns out, the clubs were not the only thing they bought me.  They have also lined up a spot in the Arizona Golf School that I will attend in a couple of weeks time.  At the Academy of Golf there, I will be introduced to golf and learn how to play.

It will be so nice when I am done to be a part of the team - I have felt left out not knowing how to play golf.

I once had a job where I would travel to different university and college campuses with student credit card applications, trying to promote the company and get students to sign up. It was a fun job, and since I never had the opportunity to go to college, it gave me a little taste of what campus life was like.

I had always thought that credit cards for students was a great idea because there would never be another time in their lives when they would be as broke as they were at that moment. It would give them a short term fix, but could cause a long term problem and that concerned me a little bit. But it was my job to promote, so promote I would.

I was actually really good at that job and I handed out a lot of college student credit cards. I was at the top of my team for quite awhile and I earned some great rewards. Perhaps the greatest reward of that job was the experience of fitting in with college students and pretending, if only for awhile, that I was young and carefree like they were.

I have always thought that the job of referencing tenants would be boring, until I actually did it. I am not saying that it is never boring, as often it is, but it can be highly amusing as well. For instance, I can tell the fake people that use their relatives and they are just too good to be true.

I also get to hear funny stories about prospective tenants from previous landlords. I mean, why would these people use their previous landlord as a reference after burning the house down. Go figure. I will not even pretend to understand some people.

The worst part of my job is when I have to actually go through and check tenants. This is when I go through the tenant’s actual home to do an inspection. They always seem so nervous and treat me like I am some evil monster or something like that. It makes me uncomfortable as well. But, we do what we have to do.

My cousin went to Europe for a six week vacation and didn’t end up coming home for almost four years. He ended up getting a work visa and staying. He started out working for a cheap car hire Portugal company and he loved it so much that he thought he would see more of Europe this way.

He worked there for a year before he moved on to drive for a cheap car hire Greece company. He loved this one most of all and he stayed there for two years, much to the dismay of his mother, and me, as she thought I could be his replacement and she drove me crazy.

After that he moved on to work for a cheap car hire Austria company. He stayed there for only six months and then decided he better come home for awhile before his mother ended up disowning him. He does plan to go back permanently and I am considering this as well.

When I finished high school, I decided to take classes at an online business academy. I do not regret this decision and I got a really good education. It was a bit harder not being in a classroom setting, but I loved that I could work at my own pace.

I am thankful for the school every day when I am sitting in the office, doing a job I never would have gotten without that diploma. It has been a fantastic journey and I have a better job than most of my friends.

Recently, I have been writing insurance reviews for an outside company. It is our slow months, so we take some outside contract work, on top of our regular office duties. I have been finding this both challenging and fun.

Last week we did some store reviews and they were impressed by how well I did. I have to admit, though, that I do love to shop and that may be one reason I was pretty knowledgeable with most of the stores we reviewed.

My uncle works as a Manhattan traffic violation attorney and he is really good at his job. He pretty much wins every case that he decides to take on and I have decided that he is going to be my mentor. I have always wanted to be a lawyer and I may as well pattern myself after someone who is great.

He recently won a case against a tough Bronx traffic violation lawyer. I got to have the pleasure of sitting in on the whole proceedings, from the time my uncle first met the client, to the time the judge decided on the case. It was a wonderful learning experience.

I had never actually thought of being a NYC traffic violation attorney. It sounds like a rather boring title, but now that I have been involved with it a little bit, I find it more and more fascinating and am aiming to head that direction in my career.

While at an electronics store the other day, I decided to drop off a resume.  I really didn’t expect a phone call, but I did receive one yesterday, and I found myself at training today.  What I had not counted on was the lack of staff at the store, and their need for sales clerks.

Part of the training program today was about iPod video conversion.  Having never owned an iPod in my life, I made sure to pay attention to the lessons.  We were told that most people would ask us how to convert a DVD to iPod Nano as well as how to convert a DVD to iPod Touch.

After spending about half an hour on these topics, we touched on how to convert iPod Classic video.  Even though these iPods were no longer for sale, there were a large number of our clients that owned iPod Classics, so we needed to know about them as well.

Well, today’s lesson was thorough.  Tomorrow we will be looking at computers and digital cameras.  I will have to read up on my notes and get ready for tomorrow - I am sure it will be another long day.

Well I was a little worried about reading the business memo that was in my email box this morning.  You see, there have been some rumors that our company was doing a little restructuring and that there may be some job cuts.  This is not very exciting news, and it is even worse during the Christmas season.

I eventually mustered the courage to open it and read the words.  It went into detail on how the company was going to use a human resources outsourcing company to eliminate the HR department.  There were also some details about how they were going to outsource the Ecommerce services division as well.

Thankfully, I do not work for either of those departments, what a relief.  I kept reading and found out that they were going to help those employees affected by the layoffs, to get in touch with a recruitment firm, so that they could find a new job quickly.  It is really nice that they would do that instead of just throwing them on the street.