2.01.2006
Working for it
So I haven't posted at all about my job. The work I am doing is really not public-health related, it's not a good way to meet people, it's a lot of hours without a lot of exposure, and it's not even currently on my resume. And it's hard. But I love it. I'm the research assistant to a Sociology professor who has a serious degenerative condition. He can't speak and can barely move at all; he breathes with a respirator. To communicate, he has to painstakingly type on to a laptop, using special software that allows him to navigate a computer using just his foot.
His mind is not affected at all.
He's fifty years old, recently divorced with teenage kids and he should be in the prime of his career. Instead he breathes with a machine, relies on his mother to pay his bills, and requires 24 hour nursing care just to stay alive. He is in pain often, there are many things he can't do, and we constantly have to stop working so that he can communicate with his nurse to reposition his body, or give him some medicines. But he doesn't just mope around--no, he is still researching and collaborating with colleagues and I make it possible for him do that.
Recently, someone from the Sociology admin office yelled at me. Basically, she said I was helping him too much with his personal affairs and that the department wasn't paying me to do that. If I was doing the work just to get paid, I might have listened. But as it is, I will continue working for him as hard and as well as I can, because that is what matters to me.
His mind is not affected at all.
He's fifty years old, recently divorced with teenage kids and he should be in the prime of his career. Instead he breathes with a machine, relies on his mother to pay his bills, and requires 24 hour nursing care just to stay alive. He is in pain often, there are many things he can't do, and we constantly have to stop working so that he can communicate with his nurse to reposition his body, or give him some medicines. But he doesn't just mope around--no, he is still researching and collaborating with colleagues and I make it possible for him do that.
Recently, someone from the Sociology admin office yelled at me. Basically, she said I was helping him too much with his personal affairs and that the department wasn't paying me to do that. If I was doing the work just to get paid, I might have listened. But as it is, I will continue working for him as hard and as well as I can, because that is what matters to me.
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