Soldiers & Work

I bought a book last night that I finished when I got home from work today. It’s “A Long Way Gone” and it is delightful. Just kidding…not delightful, but really good. It was very eye-opening to read firsthand accounts of a little boy who fought against the rebels. I can’t even imagine what life like that is like. I felt like I had a better visual image of the dirt roads and forests having been to Africa, but I can’t even begin to visualize a war as gruesome and unpredictable as the ones going on across the world. After reading about the people that took Ishmael in and allowed him to heal a painful and slow healing, it made me want to be there at those homes. It was incredible how those boys would beat up anyone who tried to help them and yet the staff came back with smiles every day despite how badly they were treated. I hope I can love like that one day.

Today was my first day of work during the summer. I work from 8-5 every day of every week of every month of this summer. At about 8:14 I realized I had made a terrible mistake. There was already nothing to do and I sat around just waiting until our tour at 9:30. The whole day was like that – very slow and very, very boring. I wish I had found an internship or talked to other people to get a change of pace. I’m stuck in this rut of being the “student worker” even though I graduated. It’s also frustrating to have ideas or plans fall by the wayside because I am not qualified or something…I don’t know.

All that whining to say that as I sat at the desk feeling sorry for myself for continuing to work there this summer instead of doing something different, I thought about the book I was reading and what a terrible life Ishmael lived and how that is still going on right this second. As I sat in my air-conditioned office with nothing to do but surf the internet and googlechat, I thought about the girls in India being sold as sex slaves or about children soldiers shooting their peers… I think I’ll make it.

In the event that I don’t though, does anyone have good ideas for how to pass the time in an office? Get back to me.