You may have noticed that recently you have been seeing fewer blog posts from me. Since November I have been working at three different jobs. I have two part time library jobs and in November I picked up a job in my local school district’s middle school cafeteria. I liked all my jobs. However, I was starting to feel like I was running myself a little ragged trying to do them all.
Also I did not feel like it was making a lot of economic sense for me to keep doing the cafeteria job because I was doing it three days a week and was technically classified as a substitute. Being a substitute in the cafeteria pays a different rate then a cafeteria worker who is working the same number of hours per day but works every school day. In my case, there was a pretty sizable difference.
I have been feeling a little ragged around the edges so I made a decision.
I decided I didn’t want to keep going this way and I gave my notice on Monday.
I thought that my coworkers would treat me badly when they found out, but it didn’t go that way. There was a little momentary weirdness but it quickly passed and things were the same as usual after the heard the news.
Honestly though, even at the jobs that I am going to keep there is some trepidation.
All of my jobs are centered around education and or books.
Today, at my community college job we had a Town Hall, which I was able to view on Zoom, about February 14th’s Dear Colleague Letter that went out schools nationwide. You can read more about what the letter means for community colleges here. Colleges are required to assess compliance by February 28, which is today. If they do not comply they risk being cut off from federal funding.
There is also a nervousness in the public library community about the future especially after seeing what is happening in other states.
Outside of that, I have been in a little bit of unsettled place since Nugget started school fulltime. I still have two jobs and I like them both but at times it feel I exist of the outer circle of both of them. Yet, if I quit one of them in favor of the other, I would probably miss certain aspects of the job that I left.
At times, I question my purpose. If you would give me a second to be dramatic here, I feel like Princeton in the musical Avenue Q. Here is the song from Avenue Q where he sings about finding his purpose.
Waaaaa! Being a grownup is hard.
Okay, my dramatic moment is over now.
In terms of finding my balance, I am looking forward to having some wiggle room in my schedule.
I am not one of those people who likes cleaning, but I do need things to be a little orderly or I can’t think straight, so I am going to do a little of that. Also I would like to blog more. I miss blogging when I can’t find the time or the brainpower to do it.
I also think that a little calm and a little moving more slowly will help me to reset my internal compass.
