Hello, welcome to housing works. This is… speaking how can I help you?

I  planned to write this post a week from today, but a phone call yesterday changed the circumstances.

My time at interning at Housing Works’s Distribution Center in LIC was supposed to have ended next Tuesday. But I found out from my counselor at NYU Langone that I will be there an additional twenty four days. Those twenty four days are business days, Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Now the end date is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, October 29th. And I’m conflicted in how I should feel about this.  On the one hand, the casual atmosphere of the warehouse doesn’t leave me stressed out at day’s end. On the other, the extension leaves me wondering if I’ll ever hit the stage in life where I’m part of the team, not an outsider.

The reason for the extension is so that I can have a full run of forty business days as originally planned.  As previously discussed, I started the program out within the Employee Health Service at NYU Langone but it ended on May 13th, in acrimonious fashion. So I was sitting at home the rest of that week in between bouts of wondering when the phone would ring and kicking myself, until that Thursday and my counselor calls saying that she found another opening for me.  Before I started at HW, she wanted me to meet my supervisor and the interview was set for the following Tuesday afternoon.

Public speaking for me is a fate worse than death. But my counselor was there with me, thankfully.  I was told to dress as if it were an actual job interview, full suit and all. Only problem was that Tuesday was a hot day and I was boiling with the suit and dress shirt on.  I could tell from the moment I introduced myself to my supervisor that this was going to be a different situation.  As the conversation went on, I was transfixed on the Wonder Woman tattoo  my  supervisor had on her left arm among others. So it was settled that I would start on Thursday June 6th.

My first task was to turn a stack of loose papers related to the operations of their thrift stores into one long Word document.  Once I opened Word, not much could distract me from getting my task done. To the point that my supervisor had to peel me off the computer at the 2PM break as I’m only there til 3PM and wanted to keep going.

I’m based primarily out of the office, so whatever tasks needed to be done, they got done.  Whether it be organizing the supplies, tearing off the Donation Form sheet so they could reuse the folders, shredding paper or making copies, I did it. But if anyone else needs help, I’m the one called upon. As was the case over the last two weeks as the Donations Call Center needed someone to go through the envelopes and sort out the receipts by month, date and store. It helps that it’s the only place in the ENTIRE building that has AC in it.

Everyone is used to the heat in the warehouse, me not so much.  To the point that its become a running joke: “is it hot enough for you?”. That was proven beyond doubt during the heatwave two weeks ago. Otherwise, everyone’s been kind to me, even if I only say hello or good morning to those passing by and tend to speak to  those working in the office.  Even surrounded by everyone else during the day, I keep to myself mostly.  The other thing that separates me from everyone else is that a good chunk of my co-workers are tattooed.

Alas, my life is still waiting for the great leap forward into normalcy. What do I do with myself when that day comes?. Being here is close enough to normal. O brave new world, That has such people in’t.