a not so comprehensive update in the life of a working girl

"Being confident that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus..."

I started this post with Paul's words in Philippians 1 because I have this uncanny knack for starting posts but never knowing how to continue and finish them. I always feel like I have so much to say, but sometimes can't figure out how to say it - which is the best explanation I can offer for not having posted for a while. (That, and busy season at the Tax & Accounting Business of Thomson Reuters has kept me occupied. Fortunately, April 15 is in sight!)

My life since my last post has taken on somewhat of a routine. Each work day, I endeavor to wake early (emphasis on endeavor) and be ready for my 8:30 am - 5:00 pm workday by the time I walk out the door for morning prayer. I then commute south on State Street and spend 8.5 hours at 880 Technology Drive. The call center has actually slowed significantly since January. February and March, the interns and I found ourselves taken up with accounting software calls. It is a thing of drudgery to ask people over and over again what their renewal plans are for their accounting software. Interestingly, regardless of how non-spiritual a thing is (and I venture to say that accounting software renewal calls are the farthest thing from spiritual!), I am learning how to worship through my work - even if I say nothing about Christ or this faith in which I am trying to abide.

This comes through the attitude of my heart - and it's easy to feel malicious and angry at people I talk to everyday, who release their stress and frustration over the phone into my ears. Having studied fancy-shmancy sounding things at the University of Michigan, I never imagined myself working in Customer Service and dealing with people the way that I do now, every day. Fortunately, this first job out of college has been a wonderful opportunity to teach me patience and how to love people who are difficult to love, especially when they speak in ways that are disrespectful, and even hurtful at times. (Make no mistake, I have not mastered these things - I am only learning and continuing to learn about them!)

While I never saw myself doing something like "Service Reception - how may I direct your call?" and "Customer Service, this is Iris - may I have your name, please?" type of things, the close of busy season has given me the opportunity to do things on the job that would never have been possible had I been in law school or any other job that does not require sitting and waiting for calls. The other interns have a love/hate relationship with Service Reception because the call center is dead these days. Over the past couple of months, I have been able to use the time spent waiting for calls and occasionally routing faxes to knit, crochet (I finally learned a few weeks ago!), make cards, read my Bible, send out support letters, manage my finances, study (occasionally) for the GRE, and learn more about Indonesia (to name a few things). And I am still working while I do all of these things!

March was wonderfully packed with lots of random and spontaneous jaunts (which are to be expected from the author). I wish I would have written about them while they were still fresh in my head. (For example, things like watching YoYo Ma pace around Hill Auditorium and stand about seven feet from where one is sitting are not easily forgettable...)

Four Aprils ago, I remember writing in my journal at some ungodly hour of the night something to the effect of, "I want to dig in my heels and fight against time passing me by so quickly..." I think the reason I haven't been writing so much is because of this constant fight for time - experiencing life instead of writing about it. (Don't get me wrong, I love to write!) I guess that wasn't really much of an update, just because so much has happened between now and the previous post - but I guess it was a start. And I am still in this process of learning about things being carried on to completion...