It's Official

There comes a point in any person's job that there are certain tell-tale signs and/or realizations that one has been working at his or her particular establishment for a long period of time. Working in the nuthouse for the last eight years, there can be several aspects of the job that can cross over into life outside the asylum. In some aspects, they tend to sick with you and never really go away; though you may not want it to happen, it happens and you can't stop it. It's kind of like taking your home work with you, which is actually a frightening thought indeed having over a hundred kids who one watches over on a semi-daily basis knowing where you actually live.

One tell tale sign that a person has been working for a long period of time is wanting to use a whistle. There are certain days I find myself in a crowded and loud area where I wanted to use my whistle to tell people to quiet down; but when I reached for it, I simply grabbed air. It's kind of like an off duty cop trying to grab for his or her gun when a crime is about to be committed or being committed. Yet, if I actually were to have used my whistle, people would either stare at me, ignore me, or do both. Working in an environment that just exudes loudness, having a whistle is the best "weapon" to calming down a group of kids that have endless amounts of energy that they want to burn off.

One realization that a person can come to is that wherever you go these kids will follow you. It's like they are the FBI, they know their whereabouts 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Going out of town is an impossibility as well, for they are everywhere. It's simply unavoidable and no matter how hard one tries to get away from these kids they will find you. Inevitably there is one place that is an absolute guarantee a person who works in the asylum will run into these kids and that place is Wal-Mart. Let me tell you something, having your name yelled out loud in a Wal-Mart store can be a very humbling experience, which has absolutely been done to me on many occasions.

In some instances, one will realize that certain kids live near you, which is either a pleasant or unpleasant thought. It really depends on which particular kid or kids, who you absolutely like or tolerate, to keep the location of one's house on the downlow. Oftentimes it can be a surprising situation when there is a knock at my door and standing there are the asylum kids who want you to solve their arguments for them. Fortunately it hasn't happened yet, but if it did happen it would be an awkward situation which can be handled in two ways: 1.) scream and slam the door OR 2.) talk to the kids. Ultimately, you are never really off duty when they need someone to listen and talk to.

Last weekend, my best friend and I came to one huge realization and it came to us while standing in line to see the movie Blade Trinity. You see, we ran into a former teenager that used to go to the asylum and he grew up. As we were talking about old times, we asked what he has been up to lately and he mentioned that he got married and his wife was with him. It was a nice surprise and we gave our congrats, as well as, giving him a few parding shots to embarasses him in front of his wife. In the end, as we were standing in line at the concession area I turned to my best friend and told him this statement which he agreed wholeheartedly with: ~It's official, we're old.~