LinnaeaBorealis -> RE: Fibro, school, house of 6 (7/11/2011 8:14:32 AM)
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I don't know if I've posted this already here & I'm too lazy to go back to look. When my daughter was 10, I was working two jobs, 60 hours a week, 7 days a week, to make sure that we had food & rent & that sort of thing. One day I realized that I couldn't continue at that pace, so I decided to go back to school to do something that I loved & that would pay buckets of money. I quit my weekday fulltime job, my parents agreed to pay my rent & I went back to school to get a 2-year degree in computer programming. This was 30 years ago, so a 2-year degree would have gotten me a great job. I was really tired of having to tell my daughter we couldn't have something because we couldn't afford it. I took 15-18 credits per quarter. School was really cheap back then so I could afford that. Near the end of my 6th quarter, I was run over by a car & ended up in a wheelchair for a couple months & had to take incompletes in my courses. And it gave me time to think. A LOT of time to think. I looked at my priorities & realized that I was putting material stuff before my kid. Programmers back then got very little time off. They worked 16 hours or more each day & then were on call the rest of the 24. Many didn't get to sleep even all that much. And I'm looking at this 12 year-old kid who is getting needier as she enters her teen years. And I realized that my priorities were backward. Sure, I could do something I loved that would make me very happy, I could work really long hours, which also would make me very happy or I could raise this kid I brought into the world & after that job was done, I could do whatever I wanted to do. So I finished school while I rehabbed, got my degree, even applied for a couple of jobs in the computer field, & then took a job in a hospital that paid enough for us to have a home & food & a few extras & made my daughter my number one priority. She grew into a fantastic woman who has morals & values & ethics, I never had trouble with her, except for the usual teenage shit, & I've never ever regretted that decision. After she was ready to be on her own, I moved to San Francisco, got a really well-paying job & had a great time. Then I got my CDL & drove a truck long haul. The point is that I was able to raise her & then go out & do what made me happy. My strongly held belief is that when one decides to have children, one's job in life is those kids until they're grown. With your degrees & certificates you could get some piddly-assed job that only required just so many hours each week, spend the rest of your time raising those kids & when they're grown, go back to school & be whatever your little heart desires.
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