I'm blogging my #firstsevenjobs. I've seen several people share their first seven jobs and smiled the other week - now, I'm sitting down and sharing.  

#1: White Hair Puller:  As a school child (9-10 years old?) during one of my summer vacations, my aunt would pay me $.10 for each white hair I pulled out.  After a month of hair pulling, she ran out of white hairs to pull,  I was out of a job.

#2: Piano Teacher: This was an awesome job that I created for myself during my years in middle school to high school.  I first started by going around the neighborhood asking parents of children aged 4-6.  I figured I could take on 1-2 kids a day on top of all my extracurricular activities and interests, so I lined up students through word of mouth marketing.  By the time I graduated high school, I had enough saved to make a nice big dent in my new college expenses (I was a full-ride student, so every little expense was a challenge to over come during my years in college.)

#3: Assistant at a Carvel Ice Cream Store: I had this job for 1 day - helping mop floors, greet customers, and random things they tried to think of for me to do.  The second day I went back, they told me they didn't need me.  I was shocked.  I learned that if you're working a job that isn't really needed or bringing value, best go find another job fast.

#4: Candy Store Cashier: I needed a second job on top of the piano teaching because I wanted some additional work experience working outside the safety of my home and in a mall like other high school students who were always hanging out at the mall....  so I found out a great friend "Mikey" had this job at the Candy Store and they were hiring.  The first day, I got paired up with this much college girl from the city (I was from the 'burbs of the 'burbs, a tiny hamlet).  Oh man, she went to town bossing my nervous butt around.  Told me to mop - saw how I mopped and she would exclaim, "there's no jobs here for a baby princess!"  She taught me how to really mop a floor.  She taught me how to get dirty to get a job done right.  She eased up on me once I showed her that I was teachable - started teaching me about the politics and the going-ons of people at the mall.  Who was dating who. How to spot a shop lifter.  How to manage up to a boss.  I got paid $5.13/hour and I learned so much in this job.

#5:Baby-sitting: I, like many teenagers, also babysat as needed.  The pay was meager.  $3 an hour, per child.  It was also a great way to get exposure to American culture.  (Side note: While I was born in the United States, and very Americanized in many ways, I actually grew up quite culturally sheltered from American culture.  I spent most of my free time reading, practicing an instrument, at church, taking care of my brother or working.)  While babysitting, I learned about Apple Crisps.  WOW, THAT STUFF SO DELICIOUS YUM!!!  

#6: Teaching Resident Advisor: Being a geek meant I excelled at a lot of things in nerdy genres.  I got to be a Teaching Resident Advisor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's (RPI) summer program for genius high school kids.  It paid awesome - and I applied the money earned there to my college budget needs.  We taught math, computer science, HTML, stuff like that.  In the off hours, I got to be a big sister to the program attendees and/or hang out with other smart geeks from other parts of the country.  I think I made my very first Chinese girl friend that summer named Kristine. 

#7: Albany Ambassador: Being a super shy kid about to go off into the big world with very little social skills, particularly speaking in front of large audiences, I decided to become an Albany Ambassador giving tours of the Capitol.  I spent hours memorizing facts, dates, random trivia.  Well, by the time I was ready, the State decided to cancel the need for a tour guide, so that was that.

Funny, all of my first seven jobs happened before I got to college.  I had at least seven jobs in college, too - from concert event organizing, to being a Resident Advisor, and from waitressing to being an Actuarial Intern. 

 I wrote awhile back that it has been and is very difficult to find any information or resources out there of startup entrepreneurs that are women, who became mothers at the same time as starting their companies.  The handful that I did find, were not the CEO at the time it happened.  Another handful I found did not want to talk about it.  

Where is everyone?

It's ridiculously difficult to start a company from scratch.  Having a baby and caring for a newborn is also ridiculously challenging.  Doing both at the same time is ... insane.  

I did both and am seemingly still alive.  Somehow.  The baby (codename Lentil) is still alive.  GiftStarter is still alive.

Obviously, Lentil is doing the best out of the three of us (thanks to an amazing father, both grandparents heavily involved in childcare, and actually, mom-care to be honest).  Mom (me) is still 15 lbs overweight, sleep deprived, and now just getting back on my feet and taking control of my life again.  GiftStarter is about to get another wind to blow up its sails.

I don't know anymore if women can have it all.  Babies, husband, marriage, demanding career into the executive ranks, a decent waistline and figure, vacations, time for a haircut or even an outing with a friend.  Serious about the haircut.  I haven't had a haircut since the one I had before Lentil was born, and that was the first (and only) haircut I had that year.  

Where is the time going?