Hey, is there a spare parachute somewhere in back?

Okay, I have the next week to get everything in order before I start my job. Can I cram in enough "me" time to make it worth it? I'm so pumped to have time without all the anxiety of finding a job. I'm sick of reading stuff like "What Color is Your Parachute?" and Jake's "Job Almanac". Yay! No more prepping for interviews, no more writing cover letters, no more tweaking my resume, because now I have a job! Jake says that if he had time off, he'd sit around the apartment in his underwear, play video games, and drink Miller High Life. Maybe that's what I should do...haha, just kidding...

The whole job search thing made me realize how much I'm really thankful to be with Jake. He's helped me a lot throughout my search. He did a good job of making me feel better after my crap interview last week and he's been patient enough to sit down and help me do interview practice with me, etc. Yay for Jake!

I'm sure this job is going to be stressful and I'm pretty sure it's not what I want to do forever, but I am thankful to be working. Right now, I'm going to take this opportunity to write out what appeals to me about the job so that I can come back to this when I get frustrated with it in the future. First, I will definitely will be using knowledge that I gained in grad school. My education will not have been an entire waste. Secondly, there will be opportunities for me to move up and to get a teaching license, which will make me more employable elsewhere in the future. Thirdly, it seems that there will be plenty of opportunity for affiliation within the job. There are lots of people about my age employed there, and hopefully that means that I'll be able to make some friends at work. Also, I'm pumped that the commute to my job won't be too bad. I think it'll take me about 15-20 minutes to drive there. I was scared that I'd end up getting a job that required me to drive on 495 everyday...I just don't want to have to deal with crazy traffic and I'm pretty sure that I won't have to deal with that on my drive. I think that overall this job will be an interesting experience...hopefully one experience in a series of varied life experiences. Hopefully I will learn and grow from this. I don't know if it'll help me gain the confidence I'm really looking for, but hopefully it makes me more comfortable and knowledgable about something...