Today will be the fifth day that we didn't have broadband internet in the office. So many people have come to diagnose the problem and fix it, but to no avail. We thought the PLDT line man would be our savior from our disconnection to the world, but alas, he wasn't the one.
And so we're left with a lot of idle time in our hands. We can't get to be as productive as we wanted to be, for most of our work depends on the internet (files coming from advertisers wanting to have advertorials done, articles and photos from contributors, discussing articles with them thru YM).
I had expected that by the time I start with my work as the sole editorial assistant for the mag I'm working for I'll be swept with so much work, I'll look like the girl-who-looks-like-a manang in a Stresstabs ad. Not that I'm praying for that to happen. It'd just that I would rather be doing something than just stare at the computer screen the whole day.
That's where I began to appreciate the so-called "menial tasks": answering the phone and taking messages fro other people, wrapping up gifts for FGD, setting up appoinments for my boss. For me those are the job for an office secretary, and I am not one - I'm an editorial assistant! *nose up in the air*
Well, that's just a fancy name. May sound nice but the job ain't glamorous. And now that there isn't any pressing jobs yet for the magazine, I ended up being other people's assistants - but not forced of course.
There came a time that I was begging people to give me something to do: I cleaned up my boss' desk, type whatever the other mag needs typing, anything to get my ass moving.It came to a point last Friday when I didn't want to go to work anymore, because I know it would be the same old boring routine of doing a little bit and then doing nothing.
It's already 4:02 P.M. and I'm already down to typing this journal entry (if you need to know, I drafted this first in Notepad, and when the dial-upped laptop was free I snuck to post it... hehe).
Is there a point to all these? Of course! I'm not ranting here. In fact I wanted to show you how much I appreciate doing the small thing, being the bit player. At first I thought I would be in a very glamorous position, where people look for me in the office, and be given invites to press cons and movie premieres, meet people in various parties and cocktails, rub elbows with the top people in the industry. I'm already one month into the job, and the only exposure I had was one meeting with Haribon. That's it.
I suddenly remembred my friend Zyza's plight in Greenpeace, when she was still connected with the organization. She was downtrodden that her job is way too far from what she really wanted, how her job ranks so low, compared to the one she wanted. And Roni told her that "Remember, Jesus took a towel and washed the apostles' feet, too." And what Lucille, a friend from Elim Singles, said about being a "servant of the servants".
And I got convicted. And it was there that I started to appreciate the little things. Coz I believe that God placed me here for a reason. And that above everyone else, He's the One I'm serving.
When you have done all you have been commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do' - Luke 17:10
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