aquamarine girl

For the past couple of months I've been working as a lab assistant on campus since the end of July, there have been pockets of good moments, but the overall experience and feeling I've gotten from my time here in SoMD has been, absolutely humiliating to say the least.

To say nothing of the horrible landlord experiences I had when I first moved to the area up until just after Election Day, of which I'm still trying to get back a $300 security deposit from one woman who keeps kicking the can on it saying that she's had financial issues since I moved out and is waiting for her tax returns to come back...yeah, smalltime landlords are just as shitty.

Then for the actual job, up until end of January, I worked in this one lab where I was at a microscope and my job was to sort through samples of dirt collected from the seafloor containing benthic organisms, and I was supposed to sort out the organisms (ex. worms, clams), but they wanted me to sort out all living things, which was difficult especially when I was trained with a more hands-off approach. I wasn't improving at the job at all in months, and just before I got off winter break, my boss invited me to her office to break the news that my six-month contract probably won't be renewed, due to funding issues mostly but also in part due to my work performance. I worked full-time because 40 hours was offerred to me and I needed to pay for rent after all, but I could have chosen to work less if I wanted and was told that most people weren't expected to work that many hours...which explains why I was being paid peanuts at $15/hour with no real benefits. After I got back from winter break, I learned from one of my direct supervisors that my letting go was most likely due to funding issues as they hadn't found a replacement for my position yet...that is, until a few days later I saw that they were getting a new woman started on orientation and she has been working in that lab ever since I left.

I was lucky enough to land another job on the same campus, as a lab assistant for a different lab, where I mostly did cleaning of glass bottles and tubes, and I was paid a better rate at $18/hour...but they could only afford to keep me part-time, and temporarily at that, but they didn't at the time say for how long. I figured I'd just need to find another part-time job to supplement that income, so I applied to a variety of things, including jobs at places I actually wanted to work at and befitted my experience, such as a tour guide at a marine museum and a few historic sites, all of which I was actually invited to interview for, but most of those eventually turned me down at some point. I was completely defeated.

Then earlier this week, I learned from my boss in the second lab that they won't keep me on anymore after the end of April due to funding issues as well, at least, this one I sort of believe because I don't think my work performance was bad enough to warrant kicking me out. And now here I am, with no real parachute out once I leave this job in a few weeks. There are like, two museum jobs I'm still waiting to hear back from, but I'm not sure I'll hear back from them in time nor will they give me the answers that I want. This week I also got asked by Walmart and Wawa to come in for interviews for part-time positions, but...at this point it's worthless if I'm not keeping my current job alongside those.

I'm going back up to the DC area to live with my parents again, at least, I won't have to pay as much on rent and groceries, but I'm not sure what I'll work as. For sure, I'm not debasing myself to work part-time with no benefits, or any job that pays less than $17/hour.

These last several months feel like a complete waste of time.

Anyways I'm losing my job in Southern Maryland at the end of the month and probably won't stay here anymore if the rest of my applications get rejected, so I'm coming back up to live with my parents again in the DC area! at the very least i don't need to spend on rent and groceries as much

...and, re-enter the workforce there in what seems to be one of the worst economic times of my lifetime