Diagnostic Essay

Jennifer Conway
Diagnostic Essay
Eng 111-49
August 25, 2009

It was New Years 2000 and I was feeling completely out of place at a back yard deer barbeque in Baton Rouge Louisiana. It was cold and I was wearing my periwinkle suede jacket trimmed in long white fur with a pair of grey knit gloves and high heel suede boots. Everyone else was wearing jeans and a flannel shirt under a plain old work jacket and a pair of cowboy or work boots, or something similar. The food was good, but that was all I could say about the party. I found myself gripping my hurricane and constantly sipping it while mingling and looking for someone to have a decent conversation with. Everyone just kept getting drunker and rowdier until some idiot decides to shoot a gun in the air at midnight. How on earth did I get here? Last year we spent New Years ’99 at a massive warehouse party in San Bernardino, CA. Partying with thousands of other people all dressed up in fun costumes or party wear and ready to have fun. It was spectacular. The music was great, although if one more DJ re-mixed Princes “1999” song, I was going to scream. We danced and partied all night and we felt a little like vampires walking out into the early morning sunshine after spending the night partying in a dark warehouse. Now, here I was a year later at a deer barbeque wishing I had just stayed home and slept.

Needless to say, we moved from Baton Rouge to check out Austin Texas within a couple months. I just couldn’t live the small town southern life. Austin, surprisingly enough was not anything like I imagined it would be. For a city in Texas, it has a nice mix of liberal, hippy and environmental friendly population mixed with the high tech, yuppie and conservative. Austin had plenty of parks, hike and bike trails, clean lakes for water sports and live music. It is called the ‘Live Music Capital of the World’ for a reason. Austin also has its share of large high tech companies for employment.

We moved a lot, so I was getting pretty good at looking for a job. I interviewed with Adecco staffing agency and was offered a temporary receptionist position at an Assisted Living Home the next week. I hate being a receptionist. For years I held positions such as Sales Assistant, Assistant to the Director of Tech Support and QA, and Executive Assistant, so being a receptionist felt like a step backwards, but it was only a temporary position so I accepted it in an effort to look like a good team player. I just hoped my next position would be something a little more interesting.

I worked hard, always smiling and answered the phones in a friendly, professional manner and my efforts were quickly noticed. After only a week I was offered the position of Activities Director. I had never held a position like that before, in fact I had never worked with the elderly before, but with only 2 weeks training I dove right in. I was given complete creative freedom. Along with many of the basic activities you would expect in an Assisted Living home, like bingo, morning exercise, crossword puzzles, coffee and ice cream socials, arts and crafts and outside entertainment, we had a huge gala each month were we invited our residence and their families to join us. A couple times each year we had wine and cheese parties, while other times we threw holiday theme parties. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, so of course we had a Costume party and Christmas and Thanksgiving Dinner were both magnificent feasts. I had a lot of fun decorating and planning an Under the Sea Picnic and dance. Helen, one of my quirkiest and fun loving residents, loved the Back to the 50’s party complete with jukebox, burger and fries that came out in Cadillac shaped paper containers and root beer floats. Molly, Edith, Helen and other residents reminisce about their weddings while eating wedding cake and sipping on champagne at the Remember Your Wedding Party.

My work as an Activities Director was the most fun I have ever had. After all, who else gets paid to sip coffee or margaritas while spending time chatting it up with others. Yet as much fun as it was, it is not my career goal to be an Activities Director and if asked to work the position again, I would decline. Along with all the fun of having the parties, it was a lot of work in the planning and preparation of the party and I put in a lot of hours organizing each activity. And getting a group of forgetful residents together for an event was a challenge all in itself. However, the learning and career experience I gained while having fun was invaluable.