Friday 14 May 2010

Blog - "Employments And Occupations".

Today has been a nice round out to the uphill struggle that has been my week. We ran out of clients at work, so we all buggered off home over two hours earlier than expected.

My occupation is writing. That's my thing. That's what I do. I've been doing it for over fifteen years now, and I have never been happier than the moment I first received payment for it, and thus entered the leagues of the Professional Writer(thank you Max Sidorenko and Andrew Apanov). It doesn't even matter to me if people are impressed by it, though happily most are, I'm just going to tell you anyway. 

I always wanted to pursue it professionally, and, though I definitely made the leap into it myself, I would not have gotten far without the help of my partner at the time(thank you Amy Duxbury). She did me a whole heap of favours because writing was a shared interest. 

Since then, a lot has changed for me.

At the time, Writing was my occupation, but my job was still your average teenage Sales Assistant. This was no big deal really, as I quite liked my job. Unfortunately, my job didn't much like me. Due to having to support the third girlfriend, who had a previously broken spine which made job hunting gruelling at best, I got a little desperate to advance upwards in the company, and became unpopular because, when the job opening came, I went for it. I didn't actually get it, because I was unpopular, because people knew I was going for it. I was likely unpopular for other reasons too, but I'm still fairly oblivious to them. Eventually, I was fired due to arson. 

Yes, arson.

No, I didn't, but they certainly had their reasons. It was a bad day to say the least. May 1st in fact - I didn't even realised I'd finally lapped it.

From there I had a large period of unemployment, which resulted in boredom, which resulted in more writing. I also got involved with a festival planning committee. For a little while I was an Treasurer, an International Promoter and also Secretary for said committee. I was also acting as a Sponsor Liaison. It was a big job, and actually a lot of fun to make happen. It's one of those life experiences that you plan and you plan and you plan, but you really don't mind when it all falls apart because you're too busy enjoying yourself. People liked me then. They would shake my hand and tell me that it was a pleasure to meet me. It was nice, and rare.

Over Christmas I worked as a Sampling Colleague, which basically means advertising stuff by giving it away from free. Unfortunately, for my area, the credit card I was supposed to use was stolen, so we had no stock to give away. Many slow days passed of walking around talking to people, mostly other staff. It actually earned me quite a lot of money, and ensured a Merry Christmas indeed, despite Ricky's vomit. That job didn't last long, but I got what I needed out of it.

I was only unemployed for a month or so before I landed by current job, which would be as an Administrator. Now, this doesn't sound glamorous, but if I can put this into perspective: I love paper. I love everything from the feel of it to the taste of it, but most of all I love defiling a crisp white piece of paper by filling it with something eminently masterful, and also gripping in how it is laid out. I can sit and do paperwork all day every day. Getting paid for it is a welcome bonus.

And, last week, I renewed the International Promoter role for a festival called Tommyfest. I'm waiting to tell people all about it, then I can count how many people think it's named after me and that I set it up myself for that purpose.

Sometimes, when I look back on my life, I don't feel as though I've done much, but I've only been available to work for just under four years, and I've done all this. It cheers me up a little.

Tom Colohue

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