Summer

It was a long summer. I worked as a tour guide for the summer in downtown Vancouver. I rode around on buses and gave live commentary to the guests on board. I met people from all over the world and realized how useless only speaking english is. So far I’m 342 days absent from Duolingo, Duo is piiiisssssed. I was trying to learn German, but that didn’t pan out.

At the start of the tour season, April-ish, I was put on a new medication that seems to have dulled most of my emotions; this was a bit of a bonus because it also dulls my anxiety. Throughout the summer I was placed with different bus drivers on different buses. Some drivers understood we were on a sightseeing tour and some figured the faster we get through the tour, the longer the break. Not cool when I’m trying to speak as fast as you’re driving and you’re driving at a clip I can’t speak at!! I can’t imagine how anxious I would have been WITHOUT my meds. One driver would spit out the window as we drove about the city… I was always in the splash zone sitting behind him. He was always surprised he didn’t make very good tips.

It was a good summer though, I made pretty good money, I met very interesting people. Tour guides are a weird bunch, we love to be the smartest in the room and usually, the loudest, so when we’re all together it’s pretty much just shouting facts at each other. I Was asked to do the training for the new tour guides, so I did get to meet them individually and in a group and teach them how to be a good guide and public speaker. That was fun, I’d do that again.

I’m now looking at becoming a 9-1-1 call taker/dispatcher. I’ve been doing a lot of research and trying to learn as much as possible about the job and the environment. I know it’s a stressful job, but I am hoping the ol’ meds will help keep me calm and collected. I’m very interested in this position. I love to be busy and I love to help people, I don’t mind shift work, or working holidays (extra pay!), I sleep weird hours anyways, and it would be different every day. I’ve got a presentation to go to next week all about the job, I’ll get to ask questions and learn from real dispatchers.

I’m also signed up for a “Crisis Communications” course where I will learn how best to communicate during a……….. crisis. Whether that is through media, in person, over the phone, or press. I’m hoping it will be a good precursor to the dispatch job.

I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m grasping at straws and hoping for the best. I need a career that doesn’t make me want to jump off a bridge everyday. I’ve tried so many different jobs and I just can’t find something I want to do for the next 20 or 30 years. Ugh.