Working Girl
Last Monday marked the first day of this teacher’s hard-earned eight-week vacation. I still can’t believe I have two months off. Even last week as Friday approached I had to keep reminding myself that I didn’t have to return to work today.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not exactly going to be a beach bum this year (especially since BP is destroying the world). I have plans to blog my butt off, freelance for a few papers and magazines and revamp lesson plans for next school year. But I don’t have to set my alarm each night and I’m not required to spend 8 hours anywhere. If I want to spend the entire day watching “Law & Order” or reading all the issues of Glamour and Elle collecting dust in my living room, I can do just that.
This is the first time I’ve had a summer off since I was 13. Since my early teens I’ve worked every summer. Some summers, especially during my late high school and college years, I held down two gigs during the summer months.
I shared this with a colleague a few weeks ago and he gave me this sad look and said, “Javacia, it sounds like you didn’t have a childhood.” While there may be some truth to that, I don’t tell these stories for pity; I tell them with pride. My family struggled financially when I was growing up and I knew that to get my hands on things like a car or a college degree, or even little things like a cute outfit that wasn’t a hand-me-down from my cousin, I was going to have to work hard. Pulling an 8-hour shift at an internship followed by a 4-hour shift at a local home decorating store, while my friends lounged at the pool and went to the movies, sucked. But being able to purchase my first car with my money and have the title in my name made it all worth it.
Those busy summers taught me tremendous work ethic that helped me get through challenging times like grad school, my first year of teaching and working on a newspaper as one of only two writers.
Running errands on foot for a law office in the humid heat of Alabama five days a week was not exactly fun, especially since I’d already put in several hours working at a summer science camp. But I wouldn’t trade those days for anything.
Now excuse me, while I get back to reading intellectually stimulating fare such as, “10 Secret Ways You Turn Him On Without Even Trying.”
I shared this with a colleague a few weeks ago and he gave me this sad look and said, “Javacia, it sounds like you didn’t have a childhood.” While there may be some truth to that, I don’t tell these stories for pity; I tell them with pride. My family struggled financially when I was growing up and I knew that to get my hands on things like a car or a college degree, or even little things like a cute outfit that wasn’t a hand-me-down from my cousin, I was going to have to work hard. Pulling an 8-hour shift at an internship followed by a 4-hour shift at a local home decorating store, while my friends lounged at the pool and went to the movies, sucked. But being able to purchase my first car with my money and have the title in my name made it all worth it.
Those busy summers taught me tremendous work ethic that helped me get through challenging times like grad school, my first year of teaching and working on a newspaper as one of only two writers.
Running errands on foot for a law office in the humid heat of Alabama five days a week was not exactly fun, especially since I’d already put in several hours working at a summer science camp. But I wouldn’t trade those days for anything.
Now excuse me, while I get back to reading intellectually stimulating fare such as, “10 Secret Ways You Turn Him On Without Even Trying.”
wow!