I've always been one to have major panic attacks when having to speak in front of a group of people. I'm talking "cannot breathe" panic attacks. Then I get sick to my stomach, and have to have ice cold air blowing on my face. Not that the cold air helps, because then I start shivering, and you would think I was coming down with a horrible virus.
Knowing this you would probably wonder why I chose to be a teacher. I chose teaching because I would much rather be around children, than adults who act like children. I chose teaching because I wanted to make a difference in this world. Teachers made a huge difference in my life, two of them did anyway. Two out of the many I'd had over the years. I wanted to be there for these kids, because so many of them needed to know someone actually cared about them. I also chose teaching because for the most part, it was a single-parent friendly career. Meaning, I was usually in the same building as my children, I never needed daycare, or had to worry how they would get home, and I knew their teachers because I worked with them, making me involved without having to constantly volunteer... though I did that too. As a PTA mom, I didn't really like the PTA moms. As a teacher, I LOVED my PTA room mothers.
When I chose teaching, I knew I wouldn't get rich... as long as I made enough money to have a safe, cozy, place to live, a car that was not embarrassing to drive (Look, I drove a ton of junkers and if I was going to suffer a huge college debt, I better at least be able to afford a nice car), and enough to give my kids everything in the world they wanted (which I now know, it was a huge mistake giving them everything they wanted without making them at least do chores), then I was happy. I was happy because I loved my job, and I wasn't struggling.
As most of you know, I haven't been teaching this year, because the wife and I are trying to get our business off the ground. Or, should I say, we're trying to find the ground for our business. I get very frustrated with the whole thing at times, and want to throw in the towel. She doesn't want to lease a space due to the amount of money it would cost, when we could buy for the same cost. It makes sense. Yet, we cannot find a place to purchase... everything is either for lease, OR if it is for sale, the owner is wanting millions, for a beat up piece of crap building. People love their property... I get it. We need to buy a little low because we will need to do a lot to any building we buy to make it perfect for our business. Not only will we need to reface the building we buy, we will also need to buy equipment and supplies... the list goes on and on.
In order to maintain my sanity, and in order to get the word out about our business, I've been doing presentations. I've just completed two for a church, and hope to do more for parent groups and schools. Now lets go back to that top paragraph... the panic attacks... yep. NOT one! I'm not sure if it's because this is something I feel so strongly about, or what, but I get up there and before you know it, two hours have flown by... even when we've had technical difficulties, like today.
The church I presented for today, is HUGE. The biggest one in the city, and they asked me to come talk about a program the wife and I attended. If they had the actual woman who created the program speak, they would have had to pay thousands of dollars... I was free. Now, when talking about someone else's program, you have to be sure credit is given to the creator, author, etc. AND you cannot make copies of stuff and hand it out because there are copyrights. The woman at the church doesn't seem to respect this. The wife does not like this woman. She says her kindness isn't genuine and that she's using me, and I know this, but I'm not there for this woman or the church. I'm there for the parents who come to these presentations, and for their kids. Lets just hope I'm not running into more people like her as I do more of these presentations, because I really do love it. Now if only we could get our business going...
Knowing this you would probably wonder why I chose to be a teacher. I chose teaching because I would much rather be around children, than adults who act like children. I chose teaching because I wanted to make a difference in this world. Teachers made a huge difference in my life, two of them did anyway. Two out of the many I'd had over the years. I wanted to be there for these kids, because so many of them needed to know someone actually cared about them. I also chose teaching because for the most part, it was a single-parent friendly career. Meaning, I was usually in the same building as my children, I never needed daycare, or had to worry how they would get home, and I knew their teachers because I worked with them, making me involved without having to constantly volunteer... though I did that too. As a PTA mom, I didn't really like the PTA moms. As a teacher, I LOVED my PTA room mothers.
When I chose teaching, I knew I wouldn't get rich... as long as I made enough money to have a safe, cozy, place to live, a car that was not embarrassing to drive (Look, I drove a ton of junkers and if I was going to suffer a huge college debt, I better at least be able to afford a nice car), and enough to give my kids everything in the world they wanted (which I now know, it was a huge mistake giving them everything they wanted without making them at least do chores), then I was happy. I was happy because I loved my job, and I wasn't struggling.
As most of you know, I haven't been teaching this year, because the wife and I are trying to get our business off the ground. Or, should I say, we're trying to find the ground for our business. I get very frustrated with the whole thing at times, and want to throw in the towel. She doesn't want to lease a space due to the amount of money it would cost, when we could buy for the same cost. It makes sense. Yet, we cannot find a place to purchase... everything is either for lease, OR if it is for sale, the owner is wanting millions, for a beat up piece of crap building. People love their property... I get it. We need to buy a little low because we will need to do a lot to any building we buy to make it perfect for our business. Not only will we need to reface the building we buy, we will also need to buy equipment and supplies... the list goes on and on.
In order to maintain my sanity, and in order to get the word out about our business, I've been doing presentations. I've just completed two for a church, and hope to do more for parent groups and schools. Now lets go back to that top paragraph... the panic attacks... yep. NOT one! I'm not sure if it's because this is something I feel so strongly about, or what, but I get up there and before you know it, two hours have flown by... even when we've had technical difficulties, like today.
The church I presented for today, is HUGE. The biggest one in the city, and they asked me to come talk about a program the wife and I attended. If they had the actual woman who created the program speak, they would have had to pay thousands of dollars... I was free. Now, when talking about someone else's program, you have to be sure credit is given to the creator, author, etc. AND you cannot make copies of stuff and hand it out because there are copyrights. The woman at the church doesn't seem to respect this. The wife does not like this woman. She says her kindness isn't genuine and that she's using me, and I know this, but I'm not there for this woman or the church. I'm there for the parents who come to these presentations, and for their kids. Lets just hope I'm not running into more people like her as I do more of these presentations, because I really do love it. Now if only we could get our business going...
1 comment:
Forget the woman, watch your back around her and shoot for your dreams!
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