Jobs

 When I was a teenager, I babysat and that gave me some spending money. Back then, I was only making 50 cents an hour to babysit. Parents had cheap labor back then.  I remember one Summer when I was 14 I had a job and would take care of two little kids all day long. I don’t remember how much I actually made. At the end of the Summer, I remember buying a wooden tennis racket for 50.00 and that was a big deal for me. I was proud of it and back then the tennis rackets were expensive.  The next Summer, I went out of town with a family and was the Nanny for the two little girls for two weeks. I received free tennis lessons from a pro tennis player when we stayed at Lakeway in Austin. I learned how to play Hearts that Summer from the girls.

When I was twenty-five years old, I had never held a full-time job. My parents in their infinite wisdom, thought they were helping me by not allowing me to get a job when i was in school.  I do appreciate what my parents did for me. I know they did this because they knew how hard it would be to work and go to school. I wasn't prepared for the world of employment.  It was very eye opening when I finally got my first job.

I went to college from the Summer of 1977 to December of 1984 without a break from school.  One Summer, I wanted to quit. I told my Dad that I wanted to get a job for the Summer and not go to school. He said, “No, you are going to go to school. If you quit, then I will not pay for your rent or living expenses.” Since I was dependent on him paying my bills, I had to continue going to school.  I was so sick of school that by the time I got out I got whatever degree I could, which happened to be a Psychology degree. My parents would joke that I had been in school for so long and had so many hours that I should have a Doctorate.

  I can now understand why they wanted me to only go to school. It’s hard, working full-time and finding the time to study for school. I know now that it actually makes you more focused.

In 1984, I graduated from The University of Texas, at Austin in December that year. I saw in the classifieds for a daycare worker position. Then it happened, I got the job and was there for about a month and got bronchitis. I was so sick that I had to move back home to my parents house . We put my furniture in storage and I went home for a couple of months.

   I still remember my Dad would wake me up at 5:30am every morning. He would say, “Looking for a job is a full-time job.” So I would get up and listen to Zig Zigler on the radio with my Dad every morning. I got to spend time with my Dad and learn some nuggets along the way from Zig Zigler.

Then one day I got a call from one of my friends who lived in Houston at the time. She knew someone at church that needed a Director for their new daycare. Paula gave my name to the owner of the daycare center. He wanted to interview me because  my background was in Child Development.  I went to Houston and I got the job. It was going to be challenging since I had never had a real job before. I didn’t know to ask them about getting off work to be able to go to my graduation at the end of May. So when the time came for my graduation, they wouldn’t let me off work. I missed my graduation for my Bachelor's Degree. I was there for six months. 

  One morning, I happened to look in the classified ads one day and there was an ad for my job. I was like what? I went and talked to the owners, they had sold the daycare center to a person that wanted to be the director. The new owner decided that I wasn’t the right person for the Director position, and put the ad in the classifieds. She told me,” Katy, you can be one of the teachers, but your salary would go down to hourly.” The idea of getting lesser pay and going down a position, I couldn’t do it. So I no longer had a job for about a month and a half. I got a seasonal job with a department store. It was a learning experience in making sure I could survive on the money I made from there. I continued that job after the Christmas season for a couple of years until I was able to get a job in my field.

I applied for a Teacher Assistant position at a middle school. I got the job the day I went for the interview. From the start, I felt at home there. I was there for four years with a break between to have my second daughter. To this day I am still friends with the teacher I worked for at that time.

When I was at home with my children, I home schooled for eight years. I decided to start substituting after the towers went down in 911. Two of my children began public school. There were times when I would even substitute in one of their classes.

Finally, about 2009 I decided to go back to school and get my teaching certificate. I went to graduate school online and got my Masters of Special Education in 2010.   I continue to substitute in high schools. As my children have gotten older, I have gotten to where I like to work with the high school students.

This was written for a Prompt: It happened, with 1000 word limit.