12.12.2002 - 4:48 p.m.

The most exhausting thing about tutoring, and I imagine this goes for just about any customer service job, is that you always have to be pleasant, patient, and lightly entertaining. I mean, I suppose I am all of those things by nature, or I wouldn�t be a good tutor. But it is exhausting to have to treat each student as if they are the first person you�ve seen that day, as if you aren�t speaking from memorization. It�s down to the last few days before finals here, and I�ve been tutoring more or less straight since ten this morning. That�s six straight hours, with two left to go. Six hours is a long time to be �on.�

It follows you, even when you are trying to take a break. For instace, suppose you take a trip to the campus center for the lunch you worked through. The campus store is busy, full of students trying to use up their flex accounts before they�re wiped at the end of the semester. You are glad of the long line. It means you can take your time deciding between pretzels and Cheetos, and that it will be that much longer before you have to go back.

The cashier is the first person you have seen all day who you are not being paid to treat well, so you start talking. �You look busy,� you say, putting as much sympathy and wit into the sentence as you can.

�Yeah,� he answers. He seems glad that you are not going to be one of those rushed, stressed, and-I-blame-you customers. �Although it gets a lot worse. You should see it at the between-classes rush.�

You look at the clock. �Oh hey, I did time that well, didn�t I,� you joke.

He smiles while his hands count bills and quarters. �Yeah, somehow nobody ever figures out that five minutes before class isn�t enough to get them to class on time.�

You accept the neatly piled bills and coins with one hand. �And of course, all that is your fault, right?�

He snorts. �Right.�

�Have a nice day.�

�Yeah, you too.� He still seems surprised that you aren't evil.

But as you walk away smiling, you realize almost in horror that you chatted him up because you were still �on.� And you have to wonder whether he chatted back because he wanted to, or because he was �on,� too.

-stonebridge

previous | next