Monday, September 7, 2015

My favorite job

What was my favorite job?

For someone who has bellyached the most about retiring too soon. I don't know.

I've been reading others who joined the blog hop on A Life Examined by Michael G D'Agostino.

My experience with work was I owe, I owe, its off to work I go. The spectre of poverty has hung over my head my entire life and taken so much joy from it. My parents grew up in dire straits during the depression of the 1930s and the scarring was passed down. The South suffered the most in the depression.

The South has had a system where wealth was concentrated with a few and most people lived on quite paltry sums of money. Pierce Butler, lived in Philidelphia, was a congressman from South Carolina and owned the largest amount of slaves before the civil war. His grandson who was also named Pierce Butler, sold off a large amount of slaves to settle debt. So many families were broken and separated by this event. Fanny Kemble and Pierce Butler

That shadow still haunts Georgia. You have islands of prosperity such as Atlanta and military installations contrasted with huge stretches of cotton mill wage places.

I retired early to take care of family members. The recognition that earning money was not the only important thing in my life was a jolt. I initially started writing to  Make Money. Now I know, you don't write to make money.

I don't have the money I had. I have had to learn to live within a budget. However, embracing my creative side has produced a change in personality and confidence. So I have to say, this unpaid hobby of mine has to be my favorite.

Socrates said a life unexamined was a life not worth living. I don't know, shallowness has its own appeal. Writing has made me examine my life and the world in general. When I spent my time chasing my tail, I had no time to really know what was going on.

I have made huge life decisions at times of forced solitude. One momentous one was moving to Atlanta without a job before the summer alotment of my teaching checks stopped. I was working as a peach grader and had a lot of time to think. So I quit, found an apartment in Atlanta and moved. I wound up teaching school again but it was in a better situation with a much better boss. I had some room to grow and relax.

Paid jobs I have had are peach grader, waittress, cafeteria worker, anatomy lab aide, fast food counter help, teacher, grocery checker, check processor, retail sales, non-profit coordinator, school programmer and performer. Each one of them have provided what I wanted, money.

I was a caring teacher. However, I worked for a paycheck. So, when politicians want to pay teachers peanuts, there is going to be a shortage. I almost left two times because the pay was so poor. Working class people can't afford to work for nothing.

This is why I put the purple in a red state. I appreciate the values of hard work and independence. I have been blessed with a job most of my life. I just know the Koch brothers only value more money for themselves and I am just disposable like the slaves were to Pierce Butler. What I like about writers is so many are independent thinkers. They recognize the vaguries of life.

16 comments:

  1. Sometimes it's what feeds your soul rather than you wallet that matters.

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    1. I've run that through my mind a good bit. I have always wondered what if? However, the retirement check is great.

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  2. The desperation of needing that paycheck leads us to do things we wouldn't necessarily choose to do in our dreams. Too bad we have to work for money and not merely for the joy of the doing. But I know your circumstance--I've taken some jobs just because I needed to pay the bills. We do what we have to do in life and hope there are greater rewards to be found in it.

    If we were paid just based on our love for what we do, I could have retired in great comfort on the jobs I loved the most.

    Arlee Bird
    A to Z Challenge Co-host
    Tossing It Out

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    1. In looking back, I think my career gave me structure and knowledge to become an artist. I am just glad I slowed down early enough to move in that direction.

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  3. I loved teaching when I did it but the part I hated was how schools always get blamed for kids not learning. I'm sure there are bad schools and bad teachers but there are a lot more kids coming from bad situations who can't or won't learn because of what is happening outside of school. Making money writing is starvation wages.

    Susan Says

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    1. Teachers are an easy target. I just hope the value of public schools and teachers improve. I'm afraid we are loosing potential teachers and opportunity for students. Private schools can be good or bad too.

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  4. It's horrible how poorly teachers are paid. They sacrifice so much and do so much. They should get good pay, benefits, and lots of recognition for what they do.

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    1. We had two governors in Georgia, Joe Frank Harris and Zell Miller who really made teacher salaries good. However, since the Republicans have taken over, the salaries have dropped steadily past 15 years. Our governor is a big Koch devotee and people like to beat the drum about how bad schools and teachers are. Georgia has come a long way but I don't know where we will be if the trend continues.

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  5. Teachers sure are paid squat. That is mostly what I do with work, take it because I need to pay the bills. The 9-5 is crummy.

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    1. We all live "by the sweat of our brow", if we are lucky.

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  6. Hi Ann..thanks for coming to visit me at my blog. I've always felt that teachers were underpaid, especially the ones that had to teach my son when he was growing up. He was a handful. So much is put into their lap. Good post.

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    1. I have to say boys were my specialty. They usually liked science. I had one child who was very hyperactive and a coordinator from the county office came to observe my class. We were reviewing for a test and that child almost sat in his lap and gave him all the answers. I thought, I might not get that great of an eval because I didn't shut the kid down. I got a good one. The gentleman had a child just like that.

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  7. It's sad that teachers aren't paid better and treated better. I'm sorry you had to take jobs you didn't really want. I always told my children to follow their passions, and the money would come. I guess you can tell I didn't grow up in poverty. I always have confidence that money will show up.

    Love,
    Janie

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    1. I didn't grow up in poverty. It's legacy was just passed down.
      Growing older, you recognise life can't have a do over and you do think about different choices you could have made.

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  8. I'm sorry to hear about your situation. I've been lucky to grow up in a well-off family, so I can never understand what you go through :(

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    1. Believe me, it is not that bad. It just colors how you look at life and reduces your risk taking. Yin and Yang is at work for all of us.

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