I’m settling down to do some serious work. The house is quiet and amazingly cool for a hot 31℃ afternoon. I’ve finally opened Susan Wittig Albert’s Starting Points: A year of Writing Prompts for Women with Stories to Tell. Since it is the second week of September, I shall begin with week two’s prompt – to write about our own personal catastrophes, and about survival and recovery.

I had a few minor catastrophes as a young person. One was being called called out by my public school principal. I got a severe tongue lashing because he overheard me telling another student I didn’t need to study. I was terribly hurt and felt devastated because I thought I was his ‘pet’. Everyone else thought he called me out to give me praise. How wrong they were! But I soon over it.

The next one that came to mind was much more serious. I got fired from my first real job. I had it only for a few months and it was just before Christmas. I got an inkling of it when I answered a call from someone enquiring about my job. When the office manager called me into her office a few days later, I already knew what was coming. Everybody else did, too. It was a very small office. I cried all the way home. I was not worried about money yet for I was still living at home. But it was Christmas and I was fired. Jobs were not plentiful back then.

I was not sorry about losing the job. I was sorry that it was that way. I was told I was not suitable. I really cannot understand that. I did everything I was told to do which was not much. I was quite bored actually with not enough to do. Freshly out of business college, I took the first job I applied for. It was for a broiler manufacturing business out in the industrial area of our city. It was a new position – that of a telephone girl. I answer the phone and make coffee and get donuts. There was not many general office calls. Meanwhile the person in accounting was overly busy. I could have done some of her typing if instructed. But no one shuffled any work to me. After awhile, I just sat, smoked and blew smoke rings waiting for phone calls.

In the end, I was happy I got fired. It would have been hard for me to quit since it was my first job. I would have suffered more months of boredom. I was quite young then and recovered quickly. I moved onto a job working for the Dept. of Indian and Northern Affairs. It was a big office with many employees. I worked as a steno for the post secondary education section. I was quite happy there till I got bored and wanted more responsibility. When I left, it was my own decision.