One Week Job Page #2

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assistant.

Hi, I'm Tracy, nice to meet you.

I imagine that

takes some training,

so lets hope

some supervision is involved.

I became a veterinary technician

because I love

working with animals

and helping animals

that are sick and hurt,

and it makes me feel better

at the end of the day

when I've done something

to make a difference.

So this is Winston.

We are going to put a catheter

in him and take some blood.

He's a little yappy

this morning,

so hopefully

he's calmed down now,

but I doubt it.

Oh, Winston, Winston, Winston!

Winston

was a little rambunctious.

He's a little dog,

but he's a feisty little guy.

He's a trooper.

Those are kidneys.

Really interesting.

I got to assist

with a couple of surgeries,

take down, record notes

and document,

monitor the levels,

so the pulse, the heart rate.

It was a lot of information

to digest.

Hopefully over the next few days

I'll be able to kinda

figure everything out.

I worked in a bank for years,

and they pushed the sales,

and I decided I can't do sales.

You know, you want

to get to school,

get through and get out,

and then get a job,

and you think

it's going to be all great,

and then you realize

that it's not really

what it's cut out to be.

You work for a long time

before you retire, right,

so you may as well be happy

doing what you're doing.

It's been really rewarding

this week,

working with the animals,

you know,

you kind of develop

a sense of relationship

with them.

You know, each animal

has their distinct personality,

and you want to see them do

well.

She's going to be okay.

Call me Dr. Dolittle.

So I just got dropped off

on the side of the road

by the Greyhound bus.

I managed to survive

during the project

by keeping costs down

as much as possible.

Bus driver said to go this way

so I'm heading south.

I'd hitchhike, take the bus,

and stay at people's houses.

Oh, here comes a car.

Going to hitchhike.

They almost hit me,

actually...

not too impressed.

I think living

as cheap as possible

really added to the experience

because most often

I was staying

at employers' houses

and not at a hotel,

so I was able to learn

about the job

but then also

what the whole lifestyle

of that profession was like.

Here I am, first day on the job

just heading to work

working for a recruiting

company.

They recruit positions

for corporate executives,

so I have to look nice,

so I got my suit,

dug it out of my backpack.

Wish me luck.

I don't know,

I definitely cannot

see myself doing an office job

anytime in the near future.

It's a little mundane.

Just dropping off these towels.

First day on the job

working at McGee's

bed and breakfast...

life of an innkeeper.

And, you know, a lot of people

say to me,

"Oh, my god, well,

I don't know what I want!

If I just knew what I want, god,

that would be everything!"

Then here's what you do.

Find out

what you don't want.

Here we are

collecting cat tails

and cutting them up,

and then taking into town

and then maybe selling them

to restaurants.

The easiest way

to get a date

or to attract

the person of your dreams

is "Okay,

who's the date from hell?"

It's funny 'cause I was saying

that I don't think

I could see myself in an office

but I don't know if

I could see myself in the forest

day after day either.

What's the job that you would

absolutely despise and hate?

And write all that down.

"Don't want to do this!"

See, people are really

associated

to what they don't want.

Write all that down,

and the opposite of that

is the job of your dreams.

And the opposite of that

is the job of your dreams.

In week 11 I went to a town

in Quebec

called Trois-Pistoles.

The year before I attended

a French language program there,

and stayed with a host family,

and the host father,

he owns the windows and doors

company in town,

so he called me up and said,

"Hey, Sean,

why don't you come and do

one of your 1 -week jobs here?"

Trois-Pistoles

is a really small town.

It's kind of like

you're in a bubble

in that

it's a simple way of being,

so I was in Trois-Pistoles

working,

and there was this girl

named Danna

who I kept seeing

around town.

Sean obviously stands out

a little bit because...

the blond dreads and he's tall

and personable.

I'd see her everywhere,

but we never really had

a meaningful conversation.

He caught my eye in Quebec City.

I was just hanging out

with my friends

and I had this really nice

silk scarf on,

and it got caught in my jacket,

and so my friends and I

start prying at it.

Karlin's trying

and Matt's trying

and everybody's trying

and then all of a sudden...

I kinda rushed on over there

to play the hero role

and try and get the scarf

out of her zipper.

And... you know,

I guess it's sort of a knight

in shining armour type feel.

We watched the sun rise together

that night.

And here she was spouting out

all these ideas

and life philosophies

that I thought

were unique to me,

so I couldn't really contribute

anything meaningful

to that conversation.

I wasn't quite sure

if he was listening to me

and, like, actually agreeing

with me

or if I was just

talking to myself,

but either way,

it didn't matter at that point.

It was a surprisingly

good conversation.

We started hanging out

more and more,

and she got to know me better,

and I guess we fell in love.

You know, after a little bit,

I found out about the project

that he was doing and that,

and so I realized that there...

It would have been impossible

to continue some sort of future

with this.

We were both not looking

for someone

in our lives at that time,

you know, here I was,

doing a different job each week,

and I didn't have time

to fall in love.

It was obvious

that I very likely

could never see Sean again.

The final morning when it came

time to say goodbye,

I couldn't speak.

I knew that if were to try

and say something,

I would start crying.

I guess it was at that moment

that I knew

this girl was trouble.

I can't think of a time

when a relationship

actually derailed

anything he wanted to do.

It is possible

as long as you make, I think,

a right amount of sacrifice

and knowing

when to make that sacrifice.

I remember thinking about my dad

and when he first came

to Canada.

My mom was pregnant

with my older sister,

and they had five thousand

dollars to their name.

We were facing a number

of challenges,

particularly getting a job.

Yes, it was exciting,

but it was

very, very frightening.

Growing up

in the middle class society,

you tended to look

more to the professions.

It was almost by default,

I think,

that I became an accountant.

Here he was

in this new country

with a young family.

He needed to get a job

so he could get a paycheck

and put food on the table.

He wasn't able

to make job satisfaction

a top priority.

You find that you are

going down a road,

you get married,

and then you have children.

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