Public
5 September 2017 at 8:09 pmby Jonah
Today was a milestone in my professional life.
When I first started working as a paralegal, my boss had me apply to be a notary public so that I could notarize his documents. All you have to do in Colorado is fill out an application on the Secretary of State website saying you’ve read the notary handbook, take a quick test, and send them $10. If you actually want to notarize anything, you also have to buy a stamp. You’re also supposed to keep a journal. I’ve always used cheap spiral bound mini notebooks as my journals and bought the cheapest self inking stamps.
I became a Colorado notary public on December 5, 2005. You have to renew every four years. I figured in four years I’d for sure be doing something else for a living.
In 2009 I renewed my notary certificate. All that you have to renew is to send in another $10. I was pretty depressed about it. I was still just a paralegal, a job that doesn’t even always require a high school degree. I was working for a firm that did nothing but foreclosures, which I didn’t really mind at all, depressing as that might sound. I liked all of my colleagues. I had a nice office to myself. But the boss was crazy and a tyrant. Berck had been furloughed by the airlines and was on unemployment. We were lucky I still had a job. And I was still working as a paralegal.
In 2013 I renewed my notary. By then I was working at a firm that did work comp and Social Security disability. I enjoyed the work and liked the two attorneys I worked for. I got along fine with almost all of the staff. My job was a lot less stressful than the last one. Berck had since finished his degree and got a very nicely paying job writing computer code. We’d bought a house the year before and had spent a lot time laying wood flooring and building shelves. Things were pretty good.
I renewed my notary again today. You can renew it three months before it expires. I ordered a new stamp with my new expiration date (December 5, 2021). I’m on my third journal, I think. I still notarize a lot of stuff at work. I’m now with a new firm, since the sole proprietor of the last one died and the rest of the attorneys decided to make a new firm. I really enjoy my job. I get to help people instead of taking their houses away from them. I work for a fantastic boss, and I think we work really well together. All three of the partners are great and are also good lawyers. I get along great with the other paralegals. I get paid generously.
I’m still a paralegal.
And I don’t mind.