Last year I spoke with the class about my career in general, since I'm fairly unique in that I've worked in a lot of different settings within the fitness industry. Unfortunately, out of all of my experiences, corporate fitness seems to be my least favorite, as it's the least challenging. And the pay sucks compared to other settings.
So it was hard work to be honest about my feelings about it while trying to provide invaluable advice to the youngsters, and at the same time trying to promote our internship program.
After monologuing for an hour and 15 minutes to a sea of blank faces, The Intern and I sat and spoke with The Professor for a little while. I was hoping that The Professor could serve as a resource for The Intern, who is looking for more opportunities to gain experience in the industry, now that her time here is pretty much finished.
The Professor was a great help and we looked over job opportunities that she had been contacted about, and discussed the possibility of The Intern playing a role in the much-needed promotional efforts of the Towson University Wellness Center. This is something I personally would have been interested in, had I been on speaking terms with the Department Head who is also in charge of the Wellness Center. But that's a whole nother story!
While sitting in The Professor's office, we suddenly became aware of a loud recorded voice advising us to evacuate the building. We stared at each other with saucers for eyes before The Professor casually shut the door of her office, explaining to us that the alarm was fake and that they'd been doing them all day.
Relieved, The Intern and I ignored the alarm and went back to looking at job postings and discussing what opportunities were available for her to gain experience without committing herself, since she was kind of hoping for a job with the company for which I work.
About a half hour later, we wrapped up our meeting and mosied out to my car. As we exited the building, I noticed about 4 fire trucks, 2 ambulances and a smattering of police cars, lights flashing, parked in the drive just in front of the building. My eyes came to rest on three policemen who were standing directly in front of the mess, glaring at the three women who had just exited the building a good half hour after the alarms started going off.
We made our way delicately through the front lawn of the building and intentionally off to the side (to avoid the glaring cops) where a group of teachers/staff were gathered. Nonchalantly, we turned and glanced up at the building from which we had just emerged, to see if there was smoke emanating from it, or blazing fires pouring out of windows. Thank goodness, we saw nothing of the sort.
The gaggle of teachers made some comments about who was the last person to exit the building while The Professor defended her near-murder (by locking me and The Intern in her office, claiming the alarms were false) by attesting that the alarms had been going on all day, how was she supposed to know it was real?
The Intern and I said our goodbyes, made our way through the random crowds of students and faculty gathered around the perimeter of the building, and left the premises before we could get reprimanded by the angry-looking cops who, in our defense, were not doing anything but standing there staring at the building with their arms crossed.
But before I left, I snapped the following photo. Just because I'm a big nerd and had a feeling I might be blogging about it.
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