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.38 Special
Joined: 08 Jul 2009
Location: Pennsylvania
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 Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 7:59 am Post subject: |
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| SW wrote: |
| Wishmaster wrote: |
| Who the hell wants to do manual labor? Geez. Don't try to make it sound glamorous and adventurous, it clearly is not. You work your ass off for a little bit of money. Yeah, the fishing gigs in Alaska might pay some coin, but you work all the time, are sleep deprived, cold and work in treacherous conditions. I guess if you really need the money, but if not, screw that. But please keep the "Working class hero" thread going... |
Uhhhhh... sorry I offended you? |
Don't take this the wrong way, my friend, but Wishmaster is essentially questioning the reasoning behind a person of enviable position who desires the plight of the unenviable. I use the word "enviable" because you get to choose whether to crawl into that mine and you have the luxury of leaving whenever you want. I assure you, if all folks were as fortunate as we are, they would not stay in those mines, crooked and dead before their time.
To some working-class people this can even be seen as insulting, patronizing if you will. Can't say I'd blame them.
But, viscerally, I can sympathize with you. In my younger years I really enjoyed the sweat. I enjoyed the constant movement. It was like getting paid to go to the gym, to turn off my college-raddled brain for most of the day and focus on the physical. The money was good, too. I even dropped out of college to make pop-tarts.
Then my back started hurting, everyday, even when I didn't do anything. Then my wrist started hurting when I bent it. Repetitive motions wear you down. Concrete floors and beating sun will make you crash at the end of the day, and before long you'll come to realize why the working-class watch so much TV, are fatter... They're too tired to exercise or socialize. I chose massive debt for a worthless degree instead. I can't say I'm much better off.
The life of a laborer is a hard one. I know you're a good guy and if you were to take a "working-holiday" you'd show proper respect for those who have far, far more work than holidays. You may even entertain their stories, maybe tell some of your own.
All of that said, I've read excellent reviews of folks who go to Central America (Guatemala and El Salvador) to pick vegetables for a season in exchange for food, board, and the opportunity to improve their Spanish.
Just don't get hurt. You could inherit Bill Gates' fortune tomorrow and never break a sweat again until Judgement Day, but lose a finger or a toe or an eye in the field and that's that, you can't buy it back.  |
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SW
Joined: 08 Sep 2009
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 9:33 am Post subject: |
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| .38 Special wrote: |
| SW wrote: |
| Wishmaster wrote: |
| Who the hell wants to do manual labor? Geez. Don't try to make it sound glamorous and adventurous, it clearly is not. You work your ass off for a little bit of money. Yeah, the fishing gigs in Alaska might pay some coin, but you work all the time, are sleep deprived, cold and work in treacherous conditions. I guess if you really need the money, but if not, screw that. But please keep the "Working class hero" thread going... |
Uhhhhh... sorry I offended you? |
Don't take this the wrong way, my friend, but Wishmaster is essentially questioning the reasoning behind a person of enviable position who desires the plight of the unenviable. I use the word "enviable" because you get to choose whether to crawl into that mine and you have the luxury of leaving whenever you want. I assure you, if all folks were as fortunate as we are, they would not stay in those mines, crooked and dead before their time. |
It's completely understandable, from that perspective, and I have considered it, believe me. It's why I've switched my first choice to the States - if I even do decide to take a "working holiday." It's still up in the air. I have no illusions about what it might entail, and I should mention that the happiest I've been at a job wasn't at one that involved manual labor. It was at my first hagwon gig here in Korea.
There are some things I should clarify. First would be my background and resume. My father, uncle, and grandfather are/were all bricklayers, coming from a family of bricklayers and steel mill workers. On my mother's side, my grandfather did apartment building maintenance and my uncle is a carpenter.
I started working the furniture department of Office Depot at 16, and stayed there for two years. During college I spent the summers landscaping, moving, painting, and doing custodial work. While moving, I worked nights and weekends as a short-order cook and barback.
After college, I installed vinyl windows and entry doors by day and had a part-time night job as a security guard at a hospital. During the summer I would sometimes put in 70+ hour weeks, and if I spent 10 hours commuting in a week, that was a good one. I did this for three years before finally high-tailing it to Europe, and then to Korea.
In addition to the work experience I listed above, I also spent 7 years playing (American) football and 3 years practicing mostly full-contact martial arts.
My point is, I am certainly not a two-fisted, grizzled old bastard, but I know what it's like to get busted up and get your hands dirty for a living. So I'm not trying to romanticize manual labor as much as spend some time back in my roots.
And I also have to clarify: I am not necessarily looking to go into the most agonizing, low-paying jobs possible. It's my fault people got this impression, because the stuff I listed in my OP is all hardcore s%#*.
My mind is fried, and I'm just looking to work less with the mind and more with the body, for at least a little while. I actually wouldn't mind spending a few months lugging furniture part-time at Office Depot again, though I'm sure that ain't happening in this economy.
Keep in mind also that I'm in a female-saturated, irritatingly bureaucratic work environment. Now I've come to believe that the best teaching environments are those where there's a balance between male and female, but at this point I think I'd be a huge relief to work for and with men. That's not misogyny, it's just a personal preference. I'm tired of having to play the lapdog to a bunch of ajummas just to get a reference letter and prevent them from terrorizing me like harpies. I'm also tired of doing it in a children's prison where "students" (inmates) crash through windows (actually happened two days ago), scream at the top of their lungs all hours of the day, sprint down the hallways, and smack the hell out of each other. I absolutely know I was never this miserable working with a hammer and power tools.
My apologies for the length of this rant - and .38, you're another person I've got to thank for the insight and advice. Didn't know about those gigs in Central America, and my Spanish could use some improving. No worries - I'll be as careful as a human being could possibly be about getting hurt. I had a boss who was pretty paranoid about safety issues back home, so I learned from the best. Also, for what it's worth, all the older men in my family I mentioned earlier are healthy and whole. Call us lucky, or blessed, or both, I suppose. |
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