Reflektor!

If the objective of work experience is to give a harsh and caustic view of the work place to students then I must say it fails miserably!

       I left the car this morning outside the college with typical butterflies in the abdomen and worry on the mind. I was less than confident about where to go, so I strolled off on a tangent in search of the college's chemistry department until my ticking wristwatch over-rode my pride and I asked some students for directions- only for them to inform me that I was in fact outside THAT very building (luckily students are reliably pleasant beings and they didn't then laugh at my ignorance). Next I had to prepare myself for actually going inside- which revived the butterflies! However as I walked into the Chemistry Department I was magically mellowed- except NOT magic- science! I went to the office and met my very welcoming supervisor, read the health and safety regulations and had a chat about what we'd be doing over the next 8 weeks.

      Then myself and my co-T.Y worker/ friend Lauren - who happened to have the same 1st placement as I- began to set up and carry out a titration experiment to ensure there were no flaws in it for the college undergraduates who would have to do it during the year. It was more complex than our Junior Cert. course, but we fared quite well and (rather miraculously) the results were flawless. That experiment occupied most of our day because we had to complete it in stages and there we're often long gaps in between the processes.
            During these gaps we did some photocopying. At one point the printer became severely jammed- though luckily it was not whilst we were using it. We also got the opportunity to join the members of staff for half an hour in the staff room. Before long we were passionately discussing the new car tax scheme that was implemented that day- then I realised that people in the 'big bad world' were interested in the same things as I! I could have easily been sitting in our school lunch room having a chat with my table. It amazed me that within minutes such nice people had made our presence so wonderfully ordinary and comfortable!
           During lunchtime Lauren and I took a nice stroll around the grounds, had some lunch and stopped in a bookshop- which led me to fulfill the need within me to buy a book  (Bookshops are my weakness so I now own a copy of 'The Picture of Dorian Gray').

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       We headed back after lunch to finish and to clean up our lab area. We then headed to the secretary's office and to their delight we brought their mail over to the campus mail-room to be posted. We left the building headed off in a circle around the entire campus (looking like confused students) and stopped for directions before actually finding the building. SUCCESS! We handed the mail in and collected some from the mail-room and we left feeling immensely proud... Then Lauren pointed out that the opposite building right out side looked rather familiar- yeah, we had been right across from the mail-room when we left our own building! We laughed the incident off and continued on the very short journey back.
      Then it was the end of the day and we picked up our belongings and bid everyone farewell for the week! I realised (that after one day in a college) I rather wanted to be a college lecturer. So either I am extremely malleable or I subconsciously chose this work experience because of an accurate instinct that I would like to venture in the general area of lecturing. Who knows? One thing is definite- it was a pinnacle day of reflection...