Leaving our Mark on this Big Blue Marble

Good Morning,

I still have not heard whether or not I will be going to the day shift.  I look forward to hearing with great trepidation.

I truly have a love \ hate relationship with the midnight shift here at the jail.  We are still subject to asinine rules and regulations bordering on the ridiculous, but to a much lesser degree than that of the day and afternoon shift.

Monday night was just a great night when everything went smooth.  My – ahem… superiors did not feel the need to justify their existence by creating chaos.  The animals behaved.  It was just a good night.

7 am rolls around and I am relieved by a day shift officer that is definitely one of the top three most miserable people I’ve ever come in contact with.

Oh my god.  Was she always like this or did the day shift do this to her?  Come to think of it the top two miserable people were also day shift officers.

I’ve really tried to keep my life’s course in a positive direction.  I have in the past had a tendency to live life negatively so I’m sure you can understand my trepidation.

Here are some positives and negatives to my future situation whichever it may be:

Day shift positives – normal sleep cycle

Day shift negatives – more stress, more danger, longer day (traffic), worse days off, less seniority

Night shift positives – less stress, shorter day (traffic)

Night shift negatives – continued living in a state of constant jet lag, night shift is a proven negative to your health, if the dark circles around my eyes continue to get darker, and they continue to sink further into my skull I’ll be even uglier...

As you can see I’m heavy on the negatives in both instances.  I keep hearing “you should be happy you have a job".  "There are thousands of people out there that would kill for your job”.  Well I’m not, and they can have it.

I imagine between work and travel to and from one’s job a quarter of one’s life is spent.  That’s a lot of time spent miserable.  So people what should you take away from this bit of rambling?  When you look at it this way I hope you’d agree one would have to be totally hopeless or kind of silly not to explore other opportunities.  So keep your eyes open. 

Anywho… so it’s time to take a chance.  Get the hell out of Dodge.  Succeed or not – at least try.  Life sux living with regret.

So here’s to a rockin 2011, kickin ass for the rest of our lives and leavin our mark on this big blue marble!

JB