Author notes

Too much responsibility

Aridy

on Sept. 28, 2011

So eventually it got so that I started to feel stressed about all the stuff that I had to do every day in the lab.  I was officially made the lab manager's assistant, which meant that I was to make sure that everything that came in got done and dealt with.  Bags and bags of lithics (artifacts that were made out of chert, a kind of crystalline-like stone, which were probably used by the ancient Maya), pottery, bone, and other artifacts would come in every day.  I would have to dump the bag, sort through it (separating it into categories), then weigh, label, and catalog everything.  It got frustrating at times when there would just be a bag filled with little pieces of chert that I had to count or bags without labels (which made them useless).  Also, there were always more things to do.  It was tedious work, but I am one of those people who needs to be doing something, no matter what, so that they feel like they are contributing in some way.