Happy Thanksgiving 2016! As I sit here, my house is quiet and peaceful. There is a blanket of snow outside and some gently falling from the sky in the way that movies try so hard to recreate. My husband is home from his midnight shift and asleep, visions of turkey dancing in his head. My son isn't up yet because, well, 9am.....teenager.....mutually exclusive things on a day off, usually. I'll be tuning in to the parade in New York City shortly and puttering around the house while watching it.
This is the first year in very many that I've worked outside the home, so my yard and my house are a cluttered mess of things that should have been put away, things that need dusting, and odds and ends that just haven't been done yet. I'm having a candle party Saturday night, so I'll be cleaning like a freak Saturday morning in preparation, though every person coming lives the same way lolol!
I was surfing Facebook earlier and I am still seeing a lot of posts and protests and angst about our recent Presidential election results. Yeah....when I got up that morning I was truly blown away that Donald Trump won that election. Granted, I voted for the Libertarian candidate in hopes that he'd swing 5% of the vote so in the next election cycle we would have a more viable third candidate, and also because both Trump and Hillary were terrible options. The overall behavior of many in our nation since that morning has been disgraceful. Eight years ago, when President Obama was elected, the people who were disappointed were told to "Deal with it" and "Get over it", that what's done is done. Now, those same groups are rioting. Those same groups are deriding and condemning the choice of, literally, more than half the voting adults in this country. And they want to know, "Why?" Why did this happen? How did he win?
I've seen a lot of opinions about that. Most of them incredibly insulting. They say things like, Trump won because racists voted for him. Trump won because people are sexist and want women pregnant and in the kitchen so they voted for him. People are xenophobic and so they voted for him. People are ignorant and uneducated and so they voted for him. People are stupid, so they voted for him. WOW. So you call half the country (actually, more): racist, sexist, xenophobic, stupid, uneducated, ignorant, etc, then you wonder WHY they aren't on board with your personal opinion and choices? Go figure.
I wonder if those people could possibly try something.....maybe try to see the world from a different point of view. Maybe if they tried to understand the reasons and issues that affect the world outside their own little bubble, if they didn't just mock what they don't agree with, maybe we wouldn't have illegal protests causing harm and creating chaos. Maybe we wouldn't have college level students who need "safe spaces" to come to grips with not getting their way. There ARE actual reasons why many, Many people voted for Donald Trump.
Here are some of the things that seem to be making the rounds. By the way, I am not going to state my own opinions about any of this so if you want to get your panties all in a bunch go for it, but don't bother lashing out at me because you don't like the idea that some people think differently than you do. But I've got friends on both sides of this thing, so I've heard a lot of discussion that maybe some folks haven't heard.
1) As human beings, we care about ALL other human beings and are willing to sacrifice things in our own lives to better the lives of others.
No. This is not how it works for a lot of people. For a lot of people, dealing with the mountains of shit going on in their own lives is more than enough to occupy their concerns. They don't have time to even contemplate how somebody in hurricane torn Haiti is feeling today. They are digging through their cupboards hoping to be able to put something together for their children that doesn't involve Kraft Dinner and cheap hot dogs. They are calculating exactly how much gasoline is in their car to get them to and from work this week, so they don't have to call in sick because they literally cannot afford to get to their job. They are signing their kids up for holiday gifts from charities because they'd really like their children to have something under the damned tree. The day to day struggle of surviving is literally all consuming and they need every nickel they've got just to make it until payday, so no, they really really do not care what somebody in another country, thousands of miles away, has on their plate, or even if they have a plate. They don't have room to help their own friends and family who are also struggling. The luxury of being able to help strangers is something they just do not understand. And maybe there's even some resentment that they can't afford to put a decent meal on the table for their children but their country is sending millions of dollars overseas to strangers.
When you assume that people in this situation are selfish or cold hearted because they don't care about these disasters in the world beyond their door, you are horribly wrong. You are looking at the world through your own lens and doing exactly what you are accusing those people of doing.
2) Health care is a Right.
No. The definition of what is a Right does seem to be flexible to many people. But just because you think everybody should have something, does not make it a right. A car is not a right. A home is not a right. A job is not a right. A good paycheck is not a right. And health care is not a right.
Instead of making everybody responsible for everybody else, make people responsible for themselves. And yes, if they fail to live up to that responsibility, it's not the fault of the world at large. That's the thinking. You've got the right to three things in this country: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. End of sentence.
3. Everybody cares about equality.
Yeah, in theory that may even be true. But when it comes right down to it, it's just more bullshit. Most people who don't suffer from inequality really never think about equality at all, unless it's all right up in their face. And giving them vague examples of something that might happen doesn't impress them. Show them a real example of something that DID happen, and you may get their attention. But otherwise, they just have no experience with any of it, so they don't understand. They can't. They know the world isn't fair, and they know that sometimes shit happens that they didn't deserve, and so they assume that this kind of things is what all the complaining is about. And from that limited experience, they don't understand why people don't just suck it up and get over it, go on about their lives. Don't be a criminal and you won't have to worry about the police. Don't act up in school and you won't have teachers that hate you. Be a good person and people will see that and just accept you no matter who you are. This is their own experience, this is what life has taught them, so why other people can't just figure that out is a mystery.
Now, if you introduce them to somebody who is a good person but got treated like a criminal because of their religion or color or sexual orientation, they may listen and they may begin to understand. But until these things are something other than a philosophical debate that never really includes them, they just aren't going to really see why folks act the way they do. And if you don't understand something, you really aren't going to care much about it. Especially, if you don't understand that there really is much of a problem. When you've rarely seen racism, xenophobic behavior, or blatant sexism happening, then you really may not understand how much of a problem it really is. And no, seeing it on TV doesn't really help. A new meme isn't going to solve anything. This is why there are pride parades and things like that, to help the people who still aren't seeing the problem to see the people who are living the problem; to try to make everybody understand that there really really IS a problem, that it's not just a bunch of crybabies who are used to participation trophies who didn't get their way for the first time.
4. One person's most valued cause is more important than another person's more valued cause.
Again, NO. If you had to pick just one cause, just one thing that you will throw all your support behind, what would it be? Marriage equality? Universal Health care? 2nd Amendment Rights? Abortion?
ASSuming that what you feel is the most important cause actually IS is arrogant and ignorant. If Person A feels that Marriage Equality is the most important cause to them, then they will vote Democrat. If Person B feels that their 2nd Amendment Rights are the most important thing to them, they will vote Republican. And when one group tries to devalue and ridicule the choices and feelings of another group because they don't agree with them, you get a mass uprising of middle America and you get Trump in the White House. Maybe if there were an open discussion.....maybe if people could live and let live.....just MAYBE if, instead of mocking and deriding the feelings and thoughts of MILLIONS of Americans, there had been some discussion.....some understanding......some recognition that just because you may disagree with somebody doesn't make them ignorant, stupid, or wrong, maybe then we wouldn't have had to choose between two candidates like we had.
5. I saw it on X news source who I trust, so it's true.
Folks, if you believe anything is the way the media portrays it then you're gonna have a bad time. Think of this last election cycle like Reality TV. It has about as much realism, as much factual information, as much reliable information as an episode of Duck Dynasty of the Kardashians. Just like Hillary's emails were not the dramatic problem they were made out to be, Trumps misogynistic behavior wasn't as dramatic as it was made out to be. Yes, there are grains....very very small grains of truth in most media sources, but that's about where it ends. It's all about the ratings and nothings gets good ratings more than pissing people off and making them afraid. So that's what's been done. They both suck. And, like any human beings, they both have skills and good qualities, too. Does this mean you have to like the results? Nope. But you do have to live with them for the next four years. Stop listening to the media and do your own research. At the very least, never assume that what you're seeing on tv is the whole story.
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Oh yes, the behavior or the very truly racist, sexist, and xenophobic people in the days following the election have been horrifying. And yes, I know I don't understand what it feels like to really be afraid right now, because I am a white American. I totally acknowledge that. And there is good reason to fear, at the moment, because those people are out there and right now they think they won something. They think they just elected one of their own, a new Hitler. They really haven't stopped to look at who Donald Trump was before all of this, at the things he's done in his life that haven't been highlighted by the media over the last year. And the things that all minorities always have to live with, the fears, are definitely highlighted at the moment. I do pray that this all passes. I do worry for my many friends who have legitimate fears right now, fears for their safety, fears for their marriages, fears for their equality, and I don't dismiss those fears. It's a realistic concern and I share it. I just think that we need to take a bit of a step back and have some hope. And we really really need to stop alienating one another. Lashing out in disappointment, or in fear, at the people who are happy with the election results doesn't stop the assholes from doing their things. It doesn't stop the hatred, the fear, or the lack of understanding. It only widens the gap and helps make sure that in four years we will see the same result at election time.
Maybe I'm just an optimist and that colors the way that I see things. But wouldn't you rather hold on to some hope and try for some understanding, than lash out and create more of a gap with anger and resentment? Because anger and resentment is why he won. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. So if you want to see something different in four years, then I suggest you consider what needs to be different.
Thursday, November 24, 2016
Thursday, June 9, 2016
Ensuring Independence by Transporting Neighbors
www.VolunteerTransportationCenter.org
St. Lawrence County (315)714-2034
Did you know that if you, or a loved one, has medical appointments to get to and from and they cannot drive, there is help? I didn't. I found out when I found a job advertisement and applied for a position in the office at there VTC in Canton. I'm SO glad I didn't start college or end up at another job where I would have just been putting in time to earn a paycheck. Don't get me wrong, a paycheck is an important thing! Without it there isn't food and gas and utility payments and all sorts of fun things like that! But how nice to find a job that I LIKE doing with people I enjoy spending time with! My employers and co-workers are a lot of fun to be around; a variety of people from around the county, a variety of ages and personalities, and each of them damned cool to work with. I've learned a ton in just the couple of months that I've been there, already, and I've still got a lot to learn.
One of the things that's been more difficult for me is getting used to not knowing what I'm doing. I'm so very used to being good at what I do! The last two new jobs I took were both in fields that I was very confident in....childcare, and retail. Being Sammy's childcare provider was easy.....he was like a nephew to me and having him around was never any more difficult than having my own son around. And retail? Pshaw! I stepped into cashiering at Walmart and, other than having to learn a new POS system, it wasn't really anything I hadn't done before. I had to learn new things at the Service Desk, and there was plenty I didn't know, but Hell....it's retail. Now THIS.....this is something unlike anything I'd ever done before. And the variety of information that passes across my desk in any given day is just staggering. And I'm the new girl!! Being unsure of what I'm doing is very disconcerting, and I constantly feel like I'm going to tie things right into a big ole knot, but they tell me that's normal. ;) Fortunately, the awesome people I work with are there to help.
The gist of it is this.....people in my county who need to get to and from medical/dental/optical appointments, and for whatever reason are unable to drive or get there, can apply here and once they're set up in our system then we can get them there. We have a bank of Volunteer Drivers, who get some small reimbursement for mileage but otherwise are doing this on their own time and dime, who help people. It doesn't matter what your income is or what your age is or what your problems are, if you can get in and out of a car under your own steam, we can generally do something to help you out. We take new clients all the time. And new drivers are always welcome and sought after like gold! So if you've ever thought you'd like to do something to give back to your community, but you don't want to be on a committee or part of some large group, this would be exactly what you're looking for! You get a lot of human interaction, you get to meet new people and help people, but you also get to chill in your car and kick around the county and state.
Just something to consider!
St. Lawrence County (315)714-2034
Did you know that if you, or a loved one, has medical appointments to get to and from and they cannot drive, there is help? I didn't. I found out when I found a job advertisement and applied for a position in the office at there VTC in Canton. I'm SO glad I didn't start college or end up at another job where I would have just been putting in time to earn a paycheck. Don't get me wrong, a paycheck is an important thing! Without it there isn't food and gas and utility payments and all sorts of fun things like that! But how nice to find a job that I LIKE doing with people I enjoy spending time with! My employers and co-workers are a lot of fun to be around; a variety of people from around the county, a variety of ages and personalities, and each of them damned cool to work with. I've learned a ton in just the couple of months that I've been there, already, and I've still got a lot to learn.
One of the things that's been more difficult for me is getting used to not knowing what I'm doing. I'm so very used to being good at what I do! The last two new jobs I took were both in fields that I was very confident in....childcare, and retail. Being Sammy's childcare provider was easy.....he was like a nephew to me and having him around was never any more difficult than having my own son around. And retail? Pshaw! I stepped into cashiering at Walmart and, other than having to learn a new POS system, it wasn't really anything I hadn't done before. I had to learn new things at the Service Desk, and there was plenty I didn't know, but Hell....it's retail. Now THIS.....this is something unlike anything I'd ever done before. And the variety of information that passes across my desk in any given day is just staggering. And I'm the new girl!! Being unsure of what I'm doing is very disconcerting, and I constantly feel like I'm going to tie things right into a big ole knot, but they tell me that's normal. ;) Fortunately, the awesome people I work with are there to help.
The gist of it is this.....people in my county who need to get to and from medical/dental/optical appointments, and for whatever reason are unable to drive or get there, can apply here and once they're set up in our system then we can get them there. We have a bank of Volunteer Drivers, who get some small reimbursement for mileage but otherwise are doing this on their own time and dime, who help people. It doesn't matter what your income is or what your age is or what your problems are, if you can get in and out of a car under your own steam, we can generally do something to help you out. We take new clients all the time. And new drivers are always welcome and sought after like gold! So if you've ever thought you'd like to do something to give back to your community, but you don't want to be on a committee or part of some large group, this would be exactly what you're looking for! You get a lot of human interaction, you get to meet new people and help people, but you also get to chill in your car and kick around the county and state.
Just something to consider!
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Staying The Course
I am not a patient person.
That may sound really strange to many of the people who know me and know that I spent years providing day care to several children, or who have known me to sit down and really listen to whatever kind of problem they needed to vent about, with no impatience. But really, when it comes right down to the day to day living of life, I am not a person who likes to sit back and wait for things or contemplate the roses, or in any way wait for things. Did I mention I'm not so great at the waiting part?
Last month, as I sat down at this very computer to go through the job listings looking for the kind of job that I WANT to do, I saw the headlines that ALCOA was planning to close the local foundry. Now, I had been watching the job market for years and had been actively looking for a job through the summer and fall. I want a Monday to Friday, day shift job, full time or part time, either is fine, but I want to get out of the house, I want to make some money, and I'd like to learn and stretch myself at some new tasks. The place I've applied at the most is Clarkson University. I'm a bit infatuated with their campus and would greatly enjoy working there. It doesn't hurt that if I work there that my son could get free tuition there, if he were to be accepted, when he goes to college. It also wouldn't hurt that I could take classes, too. But I haven't been exclusively looking at just that one place. So now I saw that a major local employer was closing in less than a month. This meant that all the older children of those employees, all the currently not employed spouses and significant others of those employees, were all going to be joining me in the search for work. It meant that the job marketplace was about to be flooded with hundreds of additional job seekers. Anything resembling the kind of job I'd like to have was about to vanish into a puff of smoke and what was going to be left were two fields I already had extensive experience in: retail and food service. I would rather not work in those fields. Food service I actually wouldn't mind all that much in the short term, but really didn't want to look at it as the job I might retire from. Retail I've done....I've worked every position in retail, from the stock person to the store manager. I've done my time on the sales floors and behind the cash registers. A back room position during the day during the week would be lovely, but I don't want to work out on the floor. I've burned out.
So I pulled up the website for the State University at Postdam and filled out an application. I've already got a couple years plus of college so I'd be starting as a junior. I would need two years to complete a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology. To earn my Master's and PhD I would have to look toward online classes because that just wasn't available locally. But as much as I loathed the idea of all of that, it still beat out flipping burgers or running a cash register. Plus, in about a half dozen years, I could work doing the job I was really born to do, making enough money that my husband could retire early if he wanted to, or cut his hours a bit. I filled out the financial aid paperwork, got everything all set to go, and then things changed.
Alcoa is not closing. Well, not this month, anyway. They are allegedly not going to close for about three more years. I don't personally trust them to hold to their end of the bargains that they've made, but either way, they aren't closing right now. So the job market is NOT going to be inundated with new people whose need would exceed my own, who would make each job infinitely more difficult to even get an interview for. Also, my husband has been given a new medication to help with his chronic pain problems. Having tried so many only to have them do nothing or next to it, it was a wonderful surprise when this new one actually worked! It's not a magic cure, it doesn't actually fix any of the physical problems that cause the pain, but it does eliminated much of the pain much of the time. So my self-imposed need to make it possible for him to have options has let up. Suddenly, the two main reasons why I was about to put myself back into college had evaporated.
I didn't change anything, immediately. I spent a couple of weeks just watching and waiting and seeing how things went. In the end, though, I called the college and had them withdraw my application. It's still on file for a year, and the school isn't going anywhere. I can go any time, I've already done the paperwork. ;) But I'm not going right now.
And there are a few jobs that have popped up at Clarkson that I have applied for and am crossing my fingers and hoping against hope to get interviews for. Thanks to a tip from Kendra at Frazer's where I managed to get an interview (only to fail the math portion of the requirements, but onward and upward) I recognized the need to explain in my cover letter why there appeared to be gaps in my employment. This had held me back previously at that location, so maybe it has done so at others. So I've amended my cover letters to explain that I was lucky enough to get to stay home with my son a lot during his childhood, but that now he's a young adult and if I don't get out of this house I'm going to go stark raving mad. Well, I don't phrase it quite like that, but I get that point across. ;) There is also a civil service test coming up that I'm sending in an application for on Friday for a Legal Secretary position. Being a secretary was actually one of the first jobs I ever wanted. It's why I went to a business school for my degree. It's not just within my skill set, it's in my nature to organize the chaos and juggle all the things that go on behind the scenes in any office o business. I'm damned good at it, too. So those are the kinds of positions I'm most heavily applying for. But I am staying the course, for now, with the job hunting and plugging away at things.
Hopefully, over the next few months, something gives and I start getting interviews. I look forward to having a steady paycheck and putting my mind to use learning something not domestic. After all, I've managed to reach Domestic Goddess level here at home....time to learn something new!
That may sound really strange to many of the people who know me and know that I spent years providing day care to several children, or who have known me to sit down and really listen to whatever kind of problem they needed to vent about, with no impatience. But really, when it comes right down to the day to day living of life, I am not a person who likes to sit back and wait for things or contemplate the roses, or in any way wait for things. Did I mention I'm not so great at the waiting part?
Last month, as I sat down at this very computer to go through the job listings looking for the kind of job that I WANT to do, I saw the headlines that ALCOA was planning to close the local foundry. Now, I had been watching the job market for years and had been actively looking for a job through the summer and fall. I want a Monday to Friday, day shift job, full time or part time, either is fine, but I want to get out of the house, I want to make some money, and I'd like to learn and stretch myself at some new tasks. The place I've applied at the most is Clarkson University. I'm a bit infatuated with their campus and would greatly enjoy working there. It doesn't hurt that if I work there that my son could get free tuition there, if he were to be accepted, when he goes to college. It also wouldn't hurt that I could take classes, too. But I haven't been exclusively looking at just that one place. So now I saw that a major local employer was closing in less than a month. This meant that all the older children of those employees, all the currently not employed spouses and significant others of those employees, were all going to be joining me in the search for work. It meant that the job marketplace was about to be flooded with hundreds of additional job seekers. Anything resembling the kind of job I'd like to have was about to vanish into a puff of smoke and what was going to be left were two fields I already had extensive experience in: retail and food service. I would rather not work in those fields. Food service I actually wouldn't mind all that much in the short term, but really didn't want to look at it as the job I might retire from. Retail I've done....I've worked every position in retail, from the stock person to the store manager. I've done my time on the sales floors and behind the cash registers. A back room position during the day during the week would be lovely, but I don't want to work out on the floor. I've burned out.
So I pulled up the website for the State University at Postdam and filled out an application. I've already got a couple years plus of college so I'd be starting as a junior. I would need two years to complete a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology. To earn my Master's and PhD I would have to look toward online classes because that just wasn't available locally. But as much as I loathed the idea of all of that, it still beat out flipping burgers or running a cash register. Plus, in about a half dozen years, I could work doing the job I was really born to do, making enough money that my husband could retire early if he wanted to, or cut his hours a bit. I filled out the financial aid paperwork, got everything all set to go, and then things changed.
Alcoa is not closing. Well, not this month, anyway. They are allegedly not going to close for about three more years. I don't personally trust them to hold to their end of the bargains that they've made, but either way, they aren't closing right now. So the job market is NOT going to be inundated with new people whose need would exceed my own, who would make each job infinitely more difficult to even get an interview for. Also, my husband has been given a new medication to help with his chronic pain problems. Having tried so many only to have them do nothing or next to it, it was a wonderful surprise when this new one actually worked! It's not a magic cure, it doesn't actually fix any of the physical problems that cause the pain, but it does eliminated much of the pain much of the time. So my self-imposed need to make it possible for him to have options has let up. Suddenly, the two main reasons why I was about to put myself back into college had evaporated.
I didn't change anything, immediately. I spent a couple of weeks just watching and waiting and seeing how things went. In the end, though, I called the college and had them withdraw my application. It's still on file for a year, and the school isn't going anywhere. I can go any time, I've already done the paperwork. ;) But I'm not going right now.
And there are a few jobs that have popped up at Clarkson that I have applied for and am crossing my fingers and hoping against hope to get interviews for. Thanks to a tip from Kendra at Frazer's where I managed to get an interview (only to fail the math portion of the requirements, but onward and upward) I recognized the need to explain in my cover letter why there appeared to be gaps in my employment. This had held me back previously at that location, so maybe it has done so at others. So I've amended my cover letters to explain that I was lucky enough to get to stay home with my son a lot during his childhood, but that now he's a young adult and if I don't get out of this house I'm going to go stark raving mad. Well, I don't phrase it quite like that, but I get that point across. ;) There is also a civil service test coming up that I'm sending in an application for on Friday for a Legal Secretary position. Being a secretary was actually one of the first jobs I ever wanted. It's why I went to a business school for my degree. It's not just within my skill set, it's in my nature to organize the chaos and juggle all the things that go on behind the scenes in any office o business. I'm damned good at it, too. So those are the kinds of positions I'm most heavily applying for. But I am staying the course, for now, with the job hunting and plugging away at things.
Hopefully, over the next few months, something gives and I start getting interviews. I look forward to having a steady paycheck and putting my mind to use learning something not domestic. After all, I've managed to reach Domestic Goddess level here at home....time to learn something new!
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
So, What Now?
These dark corners in my mind are sometimes just dizzying!
So here's what's preying on my mind this week.
Based on various factors in my own little world, I made a decision a few weeks ago to return to college and pursue a higher degree with the intent to be able to attain a specific type of job by the time in 50.
In the grand scheme of things, on the ladder of things I want to do (or don't want, as the case may be) the very bottom rung of said ladder is working in retail. I don't ever really want to work in a retail setting again. The next rung at the bottom of that ladder is returning to school. I did not like school. I met wonderful people there, the degree I earned has helped me, but I hated it the entire time. I so very much disliked attending college that I was taking 24+ credit hours a quarter in order to graduate a quarter early and get out of there! All that while holding down a job, making a car payment, and staying on the Dean's List. So you can imagine that leaping back into that world is not really high on my list of things to do. In fact, it falls just above stepping back behind a cash register at my local Walmart, below which we fall off the ladder into the ninth circle of Hell.
One factor in my decision to return to school was the imminent closing of ALCOA. Since then, they have postponed that for a few years, if we are to believe them, but they will not be closing in the immediate future. This means that the already tight job market is not, after all, about to be flooded with spouses and older children of displaced employees looking to help support their households.
Another factor was a medical issue within the family that has since resolved itself in a satisfactory way and is no longer an issue.
So! I can withdraw my application to SUNY Potsdam for this semester and continue to job hunt, as I have been all last summer. I can even step it up a notch and expand to some other places that I wasn't really paying much attention to, previously. If things don't work out, it isn't as if the college won't still be there next fall.
Or! I can suck it up and go back to school.
I told Terry in the student transfer department today that I would make a decision by the end of this week and let them know on Friday.
I can tell you that I am reasonably sure what my decision is. I just don't want to jump too fast and end up wishing I hadn't. So this week I am chewing this over in my head....and over, and over, and over......not that I have a tendency to over think things, you understand......no...not me! lolol!
Blargle!!!
So here's what's preying on my mind this week.
Based on various factors in my own little world, I made a decision a few weeks ago to return to college and pursue a higher degree with the intent to be able to attain a specific type of job by the time in 50.
In the grand scheme of things, on the ladder of things I want to do (or don't want, as the case may be) the very bottom rung of said ladder is working in retail. I don't ever really want to work in a retail setting again. The next rung at the bottom of that ladder is returning to school. I did not like school. I met wonderful people there, the degree I earned has helped me, but I hated it the entire time. I so very much disliked attending college that I was taking 24+ credit hours a quarter in order to graduate a quarter early and get out of there! All that while holding down a job, making a car payment, and staying on the Dean's List. So you can imagine that leaping back into that world is not really high on my list of things to do. In fact, it falls just above stepping back behind a cash register at my local Walmart, below which we fall off the ladder into the ninth circle of Hell.
One factor in my decision to return to school was the imminent closing of ALCOA. Since then, they have postponed that for a few years, if we are to believe them, but they will not be closing in the immediate future. This means that the already tight job market is not, after all, about to be flooded with spouses and older children of displaced employees looking to help support their households.
Another factor was a medical issue within the family that has since resolved itself in a satisfactory way and is no longer an issue.
So! I can withdraw my application to SUNY Potsdam for this semester and continue to job hunt, as I have been all last summer. I can even step it up a notch and expand to some other places that I wasn't really paying much attention to, previously. If things don't work out, it isn't as if the college won't still be there next fall.
Or! I can suck it up and go back to school.
I told Terry in the student transfer department today that I would make a decision by the end of this week and let them know on Friday.
I can tell you that I am reasonably sure what my decision is. I just don't want to jump too fast and end up wishing I hadn't. So this week I am chewing this over in my head....and over, and over, and over......not that I have a tendency to over think things, you understand......no...not me! lolol!
Blargle!!!
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