As part of my high school curriculum, many years ago, grade 11 students were required to do volunteer service, which could then be used as part of our university applications.
Being the history nerd that I was (my only goal throughout my grade 12 year was to win the award for top marks in history. I could have flunked pretty much every other class and still have been happy, as long as I wont that award. Which I did. And I didn’t flunk any classes. A happy story all around), I found the perfect volunteer job as a costumed interpreter with a local living history museum.
It couldn’t have been a better fit for awkward, nerdy sixteen year old Jane – I was allowed to indulge in my fascination for vintage clothes (I was still too self conscious at the time to consider dressing differently from my peers), interact with visitors (again, I was super awkward with my peers but more than happy to talk to strangers), and talk about history all shift long.
The museum was a recreation of a Canadian town in the 1920s, and had a number of interactive exhibits, including a bank, a blacksmiths shop, a farm house, a theatre and a school. My favourite exhibit to man was the school – even then I was drawn to education. I particularly enjoyed interacting with school groups – the funniest part was when small children would inevitably motion to me to crouch down beside them, and then whisper in my ear, “Are you really from the 1920s?” I must also be in photo albums around the world, as interpreters were always being asked to pose for photographs.
If only that nerdy young girl with a strange sense of personal style could have known that one that she would find a job in a profession where being nerdy is celebrated, and where dressing oddly is absolutely acceptable. Where she would get paid to interact with people (especially school groups) and at least talk about books for most of the day – and sometimes even books about history. Oh, how excited and relieved that girl would have been!
Did you have any interesting jobs as a teenager?