Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Okay.
So I currently work as a move assistant in helping seniors pack up their homes and we then unpack them the next day in their new homes. You see a thing or two when you pack for people. The occasional DVD tucked into an underwear drawer, food with a 12-year-old expiration date, skin lightener lotions from the 50's. Two days ago I start to pack up a book shelf that housed three labeled, ceramic jars behind glass doors. I look closer at the labels to see first name's and the last name of the couple I was packing up. The client was watching me as I eye-balled these jars. She said, "Be very careful with those." I ask, "Family members?" She says, "Our dogs...they will be mixed together with us when we go." This was definitely a first, first, first.
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
Now I think I get it...
For the longest time, I have found such admiration for a certain type of woman and now I think I kinda know a little bit more of why.
I have long referenced two women in my life that have done 180's (or variations of it) in their career paths. I lived with a family here in San Diego for almost 3 years when I was in my early 20's. The wife was a nurse practitioner at UCSD's medical center. She worked oncology. It was a tough job and I knew this because of how many funerals she would attend. I had heard one time that she must have been a great nurse and meant a lot to each family because it was slightly unusual for a nurse to attend their patient's funerals. She had this job forever and she was paid well. She left it though eventually to go be a school nurse at a high school in a low-income community near the border. I was kinda shocked. While, yes, she was still in the field of nursing, she definitely took a step down in pay and in rank if you will. One most likely doesn't need to be a nurse practitioner to work as a school nurse.
The other person I reference is a good friend of mine who went to school for biology. She became a microbiologist. And she was one for many years. She left that occupation to become a Minister at the church she and I attended. She stayed there many years to then go back to school for her master's and she now is a career counselor at Duke University. She has had many lives in one.
I grew up seeing people around me work in one job and they stayed in that job until they retired. I never knew why that never resonated with me. Until now.
I have done private-duty caregiving for basically a total of 15 years. It hasn't always been with the elderly, but in the past 10 years it had been. I moved back to San Diego one year ago this month after being away and I needed a job. I knew I should look back into this field. I get paid well and I have experience. About a month and a half ago, I interviewed for a part-time position to be a companion to a woman who lives 4 miles from my house, the job had good hours and would pay me the best I've ever been paid in this kind of work. I got an email about a week later saying that the job was mine. I read this and cried. I sobbed like a baby. I didn't want it. I had known for awhile that I wanted to get out of this line of work and my response was conclusive. I couldn't go back. I spoke with my husband about it and he agreed that if I responded like that I needed to pay attention to it. It was scary saying no to something that seemed so good on paper AND by doing so, in turn I would be saying yes to something I still have no clue as what will be.
I will tell you this though, I sent that family a three sentence email telling them I wouldn't be taking the job and haven't looked back since. My spirit, my body, my mind allllll respond in a positive way when I think of what I have done. My mom said to me, "Just because you are good at something doesn't mean you should do it." The women I so often reference were really brave because it's hard to make a change when you invest so much of your time, knowledge, energy, experience into something, but they gave me something to turn to when I was scared to do this for myself.
I have long referenced two women in my life that have done 180's (or variations of it) in their career paths. I lived with a family here in San Diego for almost 3 years when I was in my early 20's. The wife was a nurse practitioner at UCSD's medical center. She worked oncology. It was a tough job and I knew this because of how many funerals she would attend. I had heard one time that she must have been a great nurse and meant a lot to each family because it was slightly unusual for a nurse to attend their patient's funerals. She had this job forever and she was paid well. She left it though eventually to go be a school nurse at a high school in a low-income community near the border. I was kinda shocked. While, yes, she was still in the field of nursing, she definitely took a step down in pay and in rank if you will. One most likely doesn't need to be a nurse practitioner to work as a school nurse.
The other person I reference is a good friend of mine who went to school for biology. She became a microbiologist. And she was one for many years. She left that occupation to become a Minister at the church she and I attended. She stayed there many years to then go back to school for her master's and she now is a career counselor at Duke University. She has had many lives in one.
I grew up seeing people around me work in one job and they stayed in that job until they retired. I never knew why that never resonated with me. Until now.
I have done private-duty caregiving for basically a total of 15 years. It hasn't always been with the elderly, but in the past 10 years it had been. I moved back to San Diego one year ago this month after being away and I needed a job. I knew I should look back into this field. I get paid well and I have experience. About a month and a half ago, I interviewed for a part-time position to be a companion to a woman who lives 4 miles from my house, the job had good hours and would pay me the best I've ever been paid in this kind of work. I got an email about a week later saying that the job was mine. I read this and cried. I sobbed like a baby. I didn't want it. I had known for awhile that I wanted to get out of this line of work and my response was conclusive. I couldn't go back. I spoke with my husband about it and he agreed that if I responded like that I needed to pay attention to it. It was scary saying no to something that seemed so good on paper AND by doing so, in turn I would be saying yes to something I still have no clue as what will be.
I will tell you this though, I sent that family a three sentence email telling them I wouldn't be taking the job and haven't looked back since. My spirit, my body, my mind allllll respond in a positive way when I think of what I have done. My mom said to me, "Just because you are good at something doesn't mean you should do it." The women I so often reference were really brave because it's hard to make a change when you invest so much of your time, knowledge, energy, experience into something, but they gave me something to turn to when I was scared to do this for myself.
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