Learn a new skill Essay

Work experience is important because it gives you insight into life of the ‘outside’ world. It gives the opportunity of working in a line that can be chosen as a career for future, giving the idea of the qualifications and steps needed to chase for the career you want to adopt. The pleasant news of doing a work experience in year eleven was revealed to me in early spring in 2003. It didn’t really come as a shock to me because my brother had also done a work experience in year eleven and seemed to have enjoyed it and ‘had a time of his life’. In that sense I was eager about work experience and couldn’t wait to plan it. Many people I knew panicked when they heard about doing a work experience. They didn’t have a clue what they wanted to do in future. I, on the other hand, had no problem with that. I had decided when I was seven that I wanted to be a doctor who treats children. It was only recently I found out that this type of a doctor is called a paediatrician. My next step was to hunt some suitable place which was appropriate for the career line I had chosen. I started off by phoning in hospitals. But I couldn’t get hold of the right person so I tried a different route by writing letters but a huge disappointment came over me when I didn’t hear anything from the hospitals. I went to see the work experience co-ordinator and he satisfied me by saying he’ll try and sort something out for me. However, another disturbed news left me nowhere, when I found from my GP that I was under 16 and could not do my work experience in an hospital. I was very shocked and dismayed by this news and suddenly the topic work experience sounded unexciting and old. I didn’t want to talk or discuss about it. I felt a plunge of jealousy in me when I saw that all my friends had got the place they wanted with no problem. They all seemed in high spirits and were all planning what they were going to wear and what buses they were going to catch. I was horrified to see them planning their clothes when work experience seemed months away. But time was ticking on and every minute of the day, I would feel guilt building up inside me for not sorting something out. It was early July and summer was in its full shift. I was bored to death by friends jittering about their work placement that I went to the library where I saw some placements. I couldn’t help noticing that there were many places available in primary schools. I thought well primary schools have children so at least I will have some experience with children. The next minute I find myself writing letters to some of he schools. For the next few days I always lingered around the letterbox every morning, hoping to catch any letters that were for me. But again I was hugely disappointed at the fact that nobody replied. I was tearful and gave up on finding a work placement. On a warm and sticky Friday afternoon, I was watching television when my mum told me that there was someone on the phone for me. Now who could that be, I thought to myself. Well, anyway to my surprise it is fro St. Bernadette Catholic School confirming my placement form 3rd November to 14th November. I was so thrilled that I wanted to tell the whole world. Few days after they sent me a letter explaining all the policies, rules and timings. I would be working with year 4 with Miss Bowen and will start from 8:45am and finish at 3:00pm (on Friday finish at 2:00pm). I was also told that I must wear formal clothing. I didn’t worry transport as it was only ten minutes walk from my house. In the summer holidays, I couldn’t wait to get back to my school. My family were hugely surprised because usually I don’t want to go to school especially with exams which I hate. I was counting days off and in what seemed like million years the Sunday night came. The excitement inside me turned to nervousness. My stomach was already churning. Suddenly I didn’t want to do the work experience. I set my alarm to 7:30am and tried to take an early night but my eyes were sleepless. My senses told me that if I go to sleep I’ll be late for tomorrow. The next sound I heard was my alarm banging in my eardrum. Surprisingly, I wasn’t nervous or anxious anymore. I wanted to do my work experience and felt very mature and grown up. I got dressed and ate my breakfast in no time. I was expected to get to my work placement at 8:30am so I left home at 8:15am. I reached St. Bernadette Catholic School in ten minutes which seemed like ten hours. As I was early the receptionist told me to wait in the waiting room until the supervisor comes. The waiting seemed very elongated. In fact it was a long period. The supervisor came to get me 20 minutes after my arrival by which the school had started. She explained the principles and the policies again to me and another girl from my school who was also on work experience. I was delighted because at least I knew someone who I could talk to. She then took me to my class where I’ll be working for the next two weeks. I felt an abrupt jolt inside me. I prayed to God; please don’t let it be someone awful. God answered my prayers. I realized from the first sight that Miss Bowen was a very pleasant and charming person to work with. She was delightful to have me working with her. She introduced me to the class who seemed very eager to find out my name. In fact the first question that they asked me was my name. Some of them who couldn’t pronounce my name correctly or didn’t know my name, called me ‘Miss’. I felt very awkward because I also called my teachers ‘Miss’ and all of a sudden I turned from a student to a ‘Miss’. I also felt stupid when Miss Bowen told me to call her Laura. It was like as she was my friend. In a way I felt good because they were treating me like adults but the change was so sudden that I couldn’t adopt it. The first thing Laura told me to do was to listen to children read. I was very keen and felt very grown up signing their reading records and telling them what they needed to do for homework. I hadn’t finished listening to children when Laura told me to finish quickly so she could explain my next job to me. I looked up at the clock and was shocked to see that I already have taken fifteen minutes when Laura told me that it will only take few minutes. I realized that in adult life you have to do things in a way so you don’t throw away too much of your time and the jobs are also done efficiently. After finishing with the children, I took down an old display, making sure I don’t upset Laura by ripping any of the display because she needed to use it once more. I had to put up the new display using the staple gun. I was frightened to see that thing. I once used in my home and it was so heavy that I dropped on my foot while I was using it. Since then me and the staple gum have been enemies. I wanted to tell Laura that I didn’t’ want to use the staple gun but a voice in my head reminded me of my mother’s advice; â€Å"you never learn things unless you make mistakes†. Keeping that in my mind I happily invited the challenge. I tried to be confident and starting to put up the display while the children were mesmerised by the sound of the staple gun. When I had finished Laura was satisfied with my work and she wasn’t the only one. Children were content to see their work up and I was pleased to learn a new skill. At break time Laura invited me to the staffroom and told me to help myself to coffee or tea. I didn’t want to disturb my habits and watched the children play like animals; running around each other and little girls playing hopscotch. I couldn’t remember doing any of these things while I was their age or maybe it was the fact that I didn’t want to remember these things.