Work

Twice a year, I proctor exams. It sounds like I'm a proctologist, but believe me, I'm not. I just need to set exams up, monitor people, and ensure that the collection of everything is done by the code.

But to me, the people are more interesting. The people that take these exams basically want to be financial folks. Some standard that I really don't care about. But basically, you get it, and you can invest people or company's money.

Some folks look like they belong. And some, well, just look like they couldn't give a damn. If I had to pay $600 for an exam, I'd give it some care and thought.

And what's more interesting to me is people's superstitions when they go in or habitual things that they bring. Some brought lucky pennies, some made sure the stickers that their kids gave them were on their calculators, others preferred specific sharpeners, specific hair bands, and my favourite, someone with their specific jeans that they wore last year that had fake candies all over them. Hey, harmless stuff and it gives you an extra boost of confidence, why not?

Of course, others had rituals that I couldn't care for while writing the exam. I swear, this one guy would pick his nose every 5 minutes. I specifically watched the clock because I thought it was a fluke at first. Nope. That was his nervous ritual. Another guy, I thought was cheating, but he kept rubbing this rock or hunk of kleenex every 5 seconds. It was like a nervous twitch. It just kept catching my eyes, so it was actually bothering me.

But this time around, no cheaters. And that's good. It makes for much too much paperwork.