I've been very lucky throughout my life to really enjoy my work. My resumé lists a variety of odd and interesting jobs and summer employment has been an adventure. Even as an adult, as my regular work slows down during the warm weather, I find myself hitting the highway as a storyteller, visiting libraries throughout Saskatchewan and exploring this province I love so much.
When I was younger, I spent a summer working at a historical museum. I gave tours, took care of exhibits, wrote articles about events and artifacts, performed clerical duties and had a great time. The experience helped develop my love of local history and led me to choose history as my major in university. This week I returned to the same small town for the first time in more than 20 years and told stories in the library now housed in the very same heritage building that was once the museum. It was interesting to see what had changed and what had stayed the same.
Another year I mowed fairways and helped take care of a golf course in a resort village. It was a dream job for a young person, offering me free golf, a camper to stay in, only minutes from a beautiful sandy beach, and afternoons and evenings to myself. I learned how important it was to care for machinery and how to operate tractors and mowers. Years later it helped me appreciate and understand the work my husband was doing when I met him. He was a golf course superintendent and I could relate to the early morning hours and the busyness of the tournament season.
My time in a fast food restaurant was made enjoyable by a group of goofy young co-workers and, along with enduring the heat of the kitchen and the pressure to move swiftly, I developed the ability to quickly clean and sanitize surfaces, a skill every mom can use. My summer as a waitress in a bar in the heart of a prairie city gave me some of the most interesting stories I can't share around children or the faint of heart.
One of the great things about a summer job was knowing it wouldn't last forever if it was unpleasant or difficult. One of the hardest things was knowing it wouldn't last forever if it was enjoyable or interesting and it wouldn't be long until I'd have to settle into a routine that would last many more months or even years.
Sometime I still yearn for those summers of freedom and new experiences but I'm very lucky to have a life where my summers are much different from the rest of the year and I can explore new places and learn new things under the sunshine and stars of the prairies.
