Hi Sherry.Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Hugs. Many many hugs.
Earlier this year, I voluntarily left a full-time, high-paying job. Why? Because two students were killed. Students I knew, kids I cared about.
Last year, I thought teaching in inner-city schools was my next step--I was an experienced teacher in a high-need area (math) who could readily handle discipline issues. Student-student and student-teacher curse-word-filled disagreements, I handled it. Fights broke out, I handled it. Weapons confiscated, I handled it. But then two kids killed...
So I left. And for the next couple of months, I lay in bed or sat on the couch and literally pondered the meaning of life and my role in it. Maybe after all these years, I wasn't cut out for teaching. Maybe I didn't want the daily stress anymore. Maybe I couldn't handle things like I used to think I could.
For a while, I didn't even look for a job. When I finally did start to look, I looked for secretarial jobs--I'd make an awesome secretary, and I'd love it--but my resume with a ton of teaching degrees and experience apparently didn't stand out in the right way with secretary employers. Or, by the time I'd call about a job ad, the job would be gone.
In one of my searches, I came across an ad for full-time employment at McDonald's. Now, I had worked at McDonald's for four-and-a-half years to put myself through undergrad. I thought, I could do this, and maybe enter as management, to make more money! And that's exactly what I did.
I finished the rest of last school year working for McDonald's to pay the bills. To me, a wonderful low-stress job. Hard work and long hours, mind you, but low-stress compared to students dying and worrying about the next deadly incident. Then over the summer, a former college job offerred me a summer course to teach, then a few courses for the fall term. Then just before the fall term began, another branch campus had a full-time job opening, and I landed it.
I still work for McDonald's, on weekends. I am grateful for the opportunity the owner gave me, to let me start at the much higher management pay rate in this tough economic time. So I'm going to keep that job, even though I landed a different, higher-paying, in my field, full-time one.
So, somewhere in here, I'm trying to tell you that the job you want is out there for you. It may take you first accepting a job you don't necessarily want. Remember--those jobs help pay bills. Those jobs show others that you are "gainfully employed." Those jobs provide you time to continue looking for your dream job. They also help keep your mind off being unemployed, and all the emotions that go along with that.
Before I forget, check out www.demandstudios.com. It's a freelance writer site that I applied to (and was accepted to) a while ago. You can choose your writing jobs and you get paid by the job. You can work from your home computer and get paid via PayPal. Maybe you'd like this.
And I quoted what I did because I love that part of Frost's work. Wonderful choice.
Take care, and more hugs,
Liz
I'm going to bed early (this is huge for me). But for now I just want to thank you very humbly for your stories and encouragement and support. You are all very lovely and kind, and you gave me much food for thought.
I see what I need to do to get what I want or what I need, or what my son wants or needs, and I do what's necessary to pursue that. I've always been that way. I'm the oldest of four kids, Type A personality, very much a leader and a take-charge-and-get-it-done kind of person. If there's something I want to learn, I pursue it and I learn it. (I taught myself to knit - I'm actually in charge of a Bones-themed Knit-A-Long on a knitting forum, where we all knit the same project/s over the course of Season 6.) Every other woman in my family, save my mother, works in the medical profession. Me? I had to be different and pursue both an education and a career in law. 
Besides Bones, I keep up with LOST and CSI:NY - I don't have TV, so it's Netflix/DVDs/network sites for me. 
It developed because his name - one I'd loved for years, and the only one that reached mutual agreement - ended up being amazingly popular. I love his legal name, but if I called his first name aloud, maybe six kids would answer. For that reason, and due to his personality as a newborn, he's been "Pirate" ever since. The only people who call him by his legal name are family members who think that "Pirate" is a stupid name. Oh, well. Look! This is me not caring! 
