S
ometimes I feel like I’m mooching off my parents a little bit too much. I mean, I live with them, they paid for my university education, and now I have a job as my mum’s PA. It kind of feels like cheating at life a little bit. I can’t really claim that I’m mum’s PA as a virtue of my merits. I didn’t know a thing about answering phones or making bookings before this job – I did an Arts degree for crying out loud. This is a case of nepotism pure and simple. Not that I’m complaining, I love earning a huge salary straight out of uni, but sometimes it just feels kind of … wrong.
Like just the other day, mum asked me to look at hotels in Lorne. She’s organising a conference in a couple of months time and part of the appeal of it is supposed to be that the conference is held in a relatively remote town in country Victoria. Of course, mum’s done the majority of the work here, looking at all the best options and narrowing it down to the beach town of Lorne on the Great Ocean Road, but all the more admin/manual labour type stuff is shunted off to me. Not that I mind too much (I mean, it’s my job) but it feels a little slimey. I’ve spent the best part of the last couple of days trawling through different accommodation and function venues in Lorne while people are out there in the world doing real work. Important work. Work they found on their own.
I know this is my first job and that I’m not going to have it forever. All things considered, it’s a pretty great place to start and launch my career, but I wish I just didn’t feel so awful about it. I feel like a coward, like I just ran away from all my problems, and that’s not the person I am or the person I want to be. I just want to do well. Is that so bad?