Hannah the Psychologist

Well okay....so the title is a bit of a lie. I'm actually more like a secretary for a psychologist. But hey, yours truly will be a psychologist herself in......4 years....6 years...a whole heck of a lot more years.....okay yeah it's gonna be a while but if I don't think about the length maybe I won't notice it (a person can dream right?) Anyways, while I am suffering through....err.....thoroughly enjoying my never-ending educational experience, working at an office as a humble secretarial assistant shall have to suffice. Honestly, the job is really not that bad. It's actually sort of epic when you think about how much you can discover about people just by sitting at a desk. For instance, some people appear to have gotten the impression that I exist as a (completely free) extension of their current psychological service. Either they perceive me to be a particularly nice person who will empathize with their problems or they're just bored as heck waiting on their appointment and find talking to me a little more interesting than listening to the clock tick. Whatever the reason, I have heard countless tales of family drama, medication nightmares, bipolar moments, and the list goes on....The awesome part is, all I have to do for this wonderful experience in my future field is sit there, nod, listen with wide, interested eyes, and interject an occasional word of wisdom. Hey if my job's gonna be that easy then who needs all these years of educational nightmare?? haha just kidding. Being a psychologist is no walk in the park so don't get any ideas about that one....Anyhow, being able to talk to a variety of people and hear about all kinds psychological subjects from my boss makes this job absolutely perfect for the psychology nerd that I am. Not to mention, being the only employee at this office, I once received a fax that was addressed to the "Office Manager" (aka me) which made me feel super important and puffed my ego up more than it probably should have.

Despite the awesomeness of this job, it does have its rather non-glamorous aspects. For instance, while at this job, I have experienced lifting boxes crammed with patient folders from the top of an incredibly tall closet (without breaking my back or my face I might add), washing dishes with a very old, very stained paintbrush (not my brightest moment), falling asleep at the desk and jumping about fifty million feet when the phone rang next to my ear drum (only happened once though so don't judge me...I was one sick individual at the time....), attempting to fix a rather large printer (and almost chopping off my finger in the process), and staring at the computer for so long that I literally wanted to gouge my eyes out. But, in the end, none of those things matter seeing as how this has been the absolute perfect job for me and it was a miracle I even got it at all. After all, I got this job with no previous secretarial experience and had absolutely NO idea what I was doing for at least 2 months in. Heck, I wouldn't have even hired me. But, over two years later, I haven't been canned yet and I'm incredibly thankful :) It's been quite an interesting experience, that's for sure, and one of these days (if I survive graduate school that is) I'll be the psychologist myself and I MIGHT even give you a discount if you show up and tell me that you read all my blogs faithfully and never missed a one ;) We'll just have to see ;)