out and about

This is a picture of the office I have left. (No one can actually enter through these doors, no, I have to walk through the disgusting cafeteria and down half a mile of hallways before I can get to the actual entrance of the office). It looks pretty nice from the outside, doesn't it? No one would know from just looking, that inside this room is really a black hole of boredom that impels anyone who enters to their lowest low and destroys even the hint of potential into a million little pieces.

When I started this work I was a fifth grade T.A. and I honestly, enthusiastically thought - "I'll be getting paid to help children all day!" As a stay at home mom, I had been helping my own children and their friends every day for ten years and never got paid for it. I probably shouldn't share this with the world - but in my misguided brooding I believe it is important for the world to understand that people who work in our childrens' schools are treated unbelievably horribly.
(Maybe this will help remind you to give them those Starbucks cards any chance you get!)...

...After all the taxes, union dues and NYS retirement monies are taken out of my pay, I take home $46 a day - if I am lucky enough to work five days a week - do the 3rd grade math, that's right, $230 a week. (This is after 5 years of 3% raises.) And I only work 187 days a year. Granted the benefits are fantastic, and the work atomosphere for most school workers is amiable. But I think now, finally, I have resolute clarity in my decision that I need to do something more with my life.
Kudos for me!