If you knew me in 2013, you'd know that I wasn't in the most ideal situation professionally. I was making $18,000 a year as a janitor (at age 26) with rent, a car note and other bills. That may come as a surprise to those of you who I've become acquainted with after I began teaching, but that just goes to show that your 'now' does not have to be permanent. You don't have to be stuck in a job or even a situation that isn't ideal or one that is below your standards. I didn't!
Since meeting my husband, I have met women from his small hometown who have no problem shooting me a message with their burning questions. My friends know about my days working at Red Lobster. They know I've worked three jobs at once (daycare, Gallup, Victoria Secret).They have witnessed me becoming a housekeeper, moving up in a company, and finally (not finally) becoming a teacher. They know the path taken for me to get where I am today, but I wanted to share with those who don't know. "How did you turn your life around? What did it?" The answer is simple: I got tired.
People get tired of not liking the way they look, and what happens? They vow to lose weight. They get tired of being unhappy in a relationship, so they walk away. Someone gets tired of punching a clock and answering to someone else, so what do they do? They start their own business. In my case, I got tired of working dead end jobs. I got tired of watching my roommate, Amber, come in our apartment semester after semester with new books for her new classes, meanwhile I had nothing new to show or talk about YEAR AFTER YEAR. I got tired of people asking if I was in college and always answering "no." I got tired of sitting in the same spot while life continued to move forward. I got TIRED of doing nothing and going...nowhere.
One day I was watching football during my shift at Red Lobster when the sideline sports reporter, Pam Oliver, came across the screen. "I'd be so good at that job! I love sports, I'm naturally inquisitive, and I love to talk!," I thought to myself. I didn't do a thing about it though. Months pass by, and there I was sitting in my little apartment waiting to follow the exact routine from the previous day, which was to go to work, go home, watch television, and go to sleep. For whatever reason, that day I was irritated with sitting around and waiting for my shift to start. I had even gotten irritated with sitting around and watching TV! (I never get tired of TV). Perhaps it was because I had done the same thing for five years straight. I refused to make it to year six of repeating the routine.
My Volkswagon beetle was broken down, but I was too tired of my current circumstances to care. I took the Metro bus down 1960 and proceeded to walk on the side of the freeway (in the summer heat) to Lonestar College. Once I made it there and sat down with an advisor, my exact words were "I want to be a sports reporter; what do I need to do?" That is the day my journey began and the day my life started to get better. That was the first step to me obtaining the life I wanted.
None of that is to say that everything was peachy-keen thereafter. I found out I had been placed on academic probation and therefore would have to pay for my entire books and tuition out of pocket. I was told that I'd have to take THREE different math classes before I could even take the required college-level algebra class. I even failed Spanish along the way, but it was either sink or swim; go to school, or go home. But I knew that days of sitting at home could turn into weeks which turned into months and years. It had happened before.
Ladies, we all know WHAT we want (or even what we don't want) and have more than enough inner magic and strength to go out on a limb and strive to get it. But that's just it--WE have to go get it. You have talents, dreams, wants and needs, but have found yourself in a situation where you've settled with life. Are you tired yet? Now... what are you going to do about it?
Written with love,
S. S.
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