Not really a funny post, but I like it...

I've come to the realization that I am not destined for office work.  I mean, no one that does office work is ever really much of a fan of it, but some people can deal with it better than others.  I've had inklings that maybe office work was not my destined career for a while now - the sense of "who cares?" I feel while everyone else is panicked because you no longer need to dial "8" on the fax machine before sending a fax (seriously - this was a crisis a few weeks ago);  the self importance of middle managers who stride around the office as if they were superheroes causing me to chuckle rather than cringe; and so on. 

When I see the wry resignation of my co-workers, I fake the emotions back to them, parroting their behaviour like Jane Goodall among the chimps.  I draw the line at throwing feces, though.  Because, as with most things, there is a time and a place. 

But every time one of these notions hit me, I could only shrug.  I mean, yeah, sure, I'm not super happy doing what I'm doing, but what else is there?  Sure, this sucks, but where do I head to? 

I had those inklings of wanting to be in a medical job - paramedic, nurse, whatever - but every time I said "this is what I want to do", a voice inside my head was saying "how do you know that?"

It came to me last week.  I was talking to a customer on the phone, about her billing situation.  After we had resolved most of the pressing issues (and I helped fix her problem), she apologized for the fact that she wasn't making much sense - she was having a really bad migraine, you see.

And I went into instant "first aid" mode.  I walked her through the migraine.  I recommended some of the more well-known treatments for long-term migraine care.  I told her a few tricks I knew for immediate relief of some migraine symptoms.  I got a history on the patient (and yes, I thought of her at that point as a "patient", which is laughable, I know) and I came up with some suggestions for treatment.

I didn't do much - it wasn't like I was giving CPR or anything - but it was enough, for me.  Because while I wasn't the biggest help for this person (how can I be, over the phone?) it made me realize - yes, this is what I want to do.  Because I felt damned good for the rest of the day.