My time at Minuteman Press has taught me many things about the way I work. I knew some of the things, but its helpful to put it into perspective. If I don’t get along with someone work-wise, more often than not it is them… while on a personal level I cared for my boss and looked to him for guidance… I realized I was looking for a working-relationship that simply wasn’t there.

I was looking for a mentor/apprenticeship experience at Minuteman and for an entry level that is exactly the type of position I should’ve been in… One of the things that my boss said to me during my last review is that I shouldn’t have others keep checking my work, another thing he said was he shouldn’t have to keep holding my hand through the different projects that come through. The hand-holding, work-checking, is all part of the apprenticeship dynamic I was seeking. But no one there was willing to give that to me.

I have spent a great deal trying to learn from this experience in the past two months, and I realized the professors that I worked along WITH I did really well. I saw my professors as a potential client, instead of them paying me with money they paid me with a grade (albeit usually a high one). Since Minuteman is a small company, my boss was someone who wore many, many hats, and while often times I did work WITH him, there were more times when I worked FOR him. Whenever, I worked WITH him we worked well together. However, whenever I worked FOR him… that was a different story…

So, I’m happy to have realized what all this hurt means because I can finally move on from it. Whenever we, as a human race, become disappointed or hurt by something, it is because of the loss of a vision. A vision we once had either of ourselves, or of someone else, or of an experience we had high expectations for… whenever that vision crumbles and falls apart and our vision isn’t met, we feel hurt and/or disappointment. BUT that means, we have a better idea of WHAT we are looking for and in the second go-around we can fine tune and define what we want out of that experience, and if after the first month or so that experience isn’t giving us what we need and are emotionally fulfilled, it’s time to get out.