13 Job's I've Done

Being a stay at home mom, some days I remember back to jobs I've done for money through high school, college and beyond. What have been your favorite/unfavorable jobs?

1. The first real job I had, discounting lemonade stands, was working in a food booth at First Monday Trade Days in Bowie, Texas. (Think Canton, but much smaller). I worked for a Mexican Food restaurant in a trailer called 'Margaritaville'. I did this job one weekend a month for four years. I started out just preparing food, and eventually, I got to do all the jobs in the trailer; Chopping tomatoes, cleaning outside tables, bleaching the floors, filling napkin holders making lemonade, frying hamburgers, serving ice cream, preparing and selling sausage on a sticks outside. I ended up making 120 dollars a weekend, not bad money for a 17 year old. The downside to this job was that I always smelled like food, and I had to work on the weekend. Also, the restrooms were shared with the whole Trade Days, and the toilets were primitive. My first bosses were the Buffalo's.

2. Babysitting; this was the job I hated.

3. Waitress at Loyd Ray's Cajun Food in Bowie, Texas.

4. Clerked the night shift at Allsups convenience store. I cleaned the bathrooms and the whole store, checked the fuel tanks, washed the sidewalks, and took any orders for food during that time. It was probably pretty dangerous, but I made over a thousand dollars that summer before I went to ACU. I'm betting I am the only entering freshmen girl in the class of '96 who worked the night shift at a convenience store. The good thing about this job was I got to make fresh fried burritos and apple crisps for my brother and his friends. Also, an ex-convict taught me how to mop properly...priceless! The first night I worked there, the electricity shut off and a trucker shined his lights in for thirty minutes while we waited for the electricity to come back on. There is no doubt that God took good care of me during this time.

5. Worked as a transcriptionist for a very wealthy man in Post transcribing the trips he took around the world. He went on extravagant vacations where naturalist from all around the world would go and give lecturers about the indigenous people, plant life and animal life. Sometimes this was boring, but it beat Allsups and I got to visit via his lectures the whole danged world. He always brought back neat souvenirs that he placed in a museum in Post. His fabrige egg collection rivals the one at the Smithsonian. If you ever go through Post, stop at his museum. Around Christmas, he has a nativity collection that is amazing. Nativity sets from all over the world! I did this job for five years during the summers at ACU.

6. News pages editor for the Optimist. I left journalism after working until 3 a.m. two nights a week to meet our deadlines.(I was offered an internship with a newspaper in Chicago for the following year, but I realized this job was not for me after Wayne Barnard accused me of fabricating a story about him. I called his home and spoke with him while he had the flu. Either he was pissed of just forgot. I swear I spoke to him, and I think my professor believed me because he didn't fail me like he said he was going to.

7. 1st grade teacher at Mission West Elementary. I started my job in January. I was their4th teacher for the year. God blessed my work with these children, and I loved them like my own. By the end of the year, I had the best behaved class in the whole first grade, and I was voted first year teacher of the year! God provided in me love I never imagined possible. Not that I didn't make a ton of mistakes; just that the children were beautiful to me. I actually miss them!

8. 3rd grade teacher at Mission West Elementary. Again, I had the best class in the whole school. I sincerely adored these children. But, Mike got a new job in Arlington, TX and I had to leave them.

9. ESL teacher at Ashworth Elementary in AISD. God blessed me again by providing work in January when no one thought I'd be hired. I loved my students. In November, we had a culture day where all my different students brought food from their countries. WE had food from Mexico, Guatemala, India, Pakistan, Persia, and all over the world.

10. 3rd grade teacher at Ashworth Elementary. This year was full of trials for me, and I quit at the end of the year, vowing never to teach elementary school again. It was this year I came to hate the TAKS test and the stress it put on my students and me. If I hear one more politician speak about holding teachers accountable, I will personally lead a teacher revolt! It was this year when I also began to suspect that George Bush didn't know squat about education. (Sorry to my republican friends, but Bush's No Child Left Behind initiative shows a serious lack of understanding of children, the major role parents play, and the educational process. TAKS has become a worksheet creating monster that is killing creativity in our classrooms. I am seriously considering private school to escape testing for my children.)

10. Worked in an after school program at Shakelford Junior High called Girl's Inc. and as a substitute teacher for AISD. I had to do these jobs because I saved over 7 thousand dollars to go back to school to get a journalism degree. That money went to housing repairs on a retaining wall at our house. When I failed to register for classes on time at UTA, the only classes that were available were English classes. (No journalism classes were available). God blessed my life so much through this mistake because I realized I had a huge passion for English thanks to great profs like Dr. Lacy, Dr. Alaimo, and Dr. Estes. I also subbed in a high school English class at Lamar, and I told God that I loved it.

11. 9th and 10th grade English teacher at Lamar! My favorite job yet. I worked hard to create excellent and educated writers who really loved writing. The TAKS wasn't so scary to me. I had kids that failed, but in high school, it isn't as big of a deal. I was held accountable for teaching the material, and the students (gasp) were held accountable for learning it. I felt backed up by other teachers and previous teachers. I loved this job! I swore I'd never leave it. God even blessed me with a window in my classroom, something I prayed fervently for every day I taught. I told God I would never leave my classroom that looked out over the butterfly garden at Lamar, and then...

12. I got pregnant and had Jackson. I decided I'd never leave him in a daycare while he was so helpless. So, we were poor and decided to give our finances to God, and he has blessed us for it. So my twelfth job is a stay at home mom who is...

13. Working toward an MA in English, so I can either teach high school or college English.

My heart is full of gratitude to God, who provides salvation for us. But, as if that isn't enough, he blesses our lives with the opportunity to work. Thanks to God, who gives us the ability to work. Because of my jobs at Allsups and Margaritaville, I have a lot of sympathy for those who have not received educations and the hard work they have to do. One of the ladies I worked with at Allsups had to pay for daycare for her child out of the money she earned at Allsups. Life certainly isn't easy in a situation like that. Thank you God for opening my eyes to your glory and wisdom through the jobs I've done.

What jobs have you done that you liked or hated?