> Question- did your school ever have a class you could take in which you helped a teacher/administrative officer, and did you ever make the near-fatal mistake of choosing it?
>

Yeah. In my school it's called SSO, or the Student Service Organization. Everyone calls it the Student Slave Organization though.
Anyway, I did it once in tenth grade because *shiver* they gave me a lunch period and I was bored out of my mind. I enslaved myself in the library, mostly because 1)I usually live in the library in my town and 2)It was one of the last slots open when I got around to getting an assignment.

Unlike you I had a great time. The whole year all I ever had to do was shelve books, take labels off of books, tidy shelves, gather books which students had thrown all over in the library, cut date due slips, arrange magazines, rip up old books(which was the trickiest actually, and I injured myself-I got a papercut), run late slips to study halls and once, even check books out for people. It was very relaxing, especially since it was just after English, which I hate. I used to have contests with myself to see how quickly I could put away books, and I got so good at ripping up books that the librarian copied my style and they got done with them a million times quicker.

There were many perks. While shelving books, I found gems which were hidden away behind other books or which I might not have looked at if I had just been browsing. Also, I was usually the first to know when new books were in, so I could get them before anyone else noticed and made off with them. That's how I finally ended up reading Stranger in a Strange Land. Sometimes I even got free time to browse the shelves or read or use the computers, all without having to deal with a study hall monitor and get a pass. Finally, I got a lot of library experience, which I sometimes put on applications since I've never had a real job. All in all, it was pretty fun, and at the end the librarian gave me this gorgeus candle set in glass. It has a flower painted on it. I would have done it again the next year(last year actually, my junior year) but I managed to fill my schedule completely up, and couldn't.

> So now I'm stuck with responsibilty in which 6th graders and 7th graders A-L's student records hang in the balance. I write stuff, copy stuff, stamp stuff, and carry stuff to other administrative offices in which my friends do, pretty much, the same exact stuff.
>
> Whenever I do get out of the office, I usually either carry packages, which I carry AWAY from my body because of the high liability to explode; or I take attendance, in which I step into EVERY classroom in building three to get the attendance sheet. No need to describe 6th grade wolf whistles or 7th graders screaming at me to tell Mr. Morris that, really, swear to God, they DIDN'T start that fight.
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> Cai "The RA copy machine didn't break, and I didn't do it" a

I know people who SSO'd in the office at my school. You must have been shafted, because they all loved it. It might not have been the job, but the people who run it. Usually it's a lot more fun than you seem to have had...

Mel"Library Lackey, and Proud of it!"anie