The 3 Job Myth

Long time, no see little blog o' mine. I've missed you. I think of you often and compose blog posts in my head, paragraph by paragraph, but I never sit down anymore to record them here. I have the day off today, which in my world of three part-time jobs doesn't happen much. However, please allow me to address my three job myth.

I have some very sweet people in my life. In fact I have to say that I can't remember a time since college that I have had such a numerous amount of relationships. That is one of the perks of having three jobs: three sets of co-workers. Not to mention the multitude of friends who have taken pity on my current state and take the extra time to check in on me. Their pity (compassion and genuine desire to support me) has led to a lot of re-connections and intentional time spent nurturing my friendships. More on this in a later post.

I continue to get asked the same question or hear the same assumption from many of these very sweet people in my life. This is what I am dubbing "The 3 Job Myth". The first aspect of The Myth comes from this sentiment, "Three jobs! You must be running around all the time." The Myth is that I am busier than people with one full time job. False. It sounds like I am working all the time, but I rarely hit a full 35-40 hours of work in a week. Rather I work very short shifts and they are just spread across all seven days of the week. So when I say I rarely have a day off don't feel bad for me because some days I am only working for as little as 3 hours at a time. As I was accumulating jobs, each place was only able to offer me a few hours each week, thus necessitating the need for me to acquire yet another job and before I knew it I had three.

As I type this I realize how unintelligent I may seem, or at least inefficient. But anyone who has been unemployed in this economy can relate. There simply are not an excess of jobs out there. I attempted to gain full-time employment and went through a few interviews but was unable to secure the jobs. Believe me I am going to try again, but sometimes you just do what you gotta do.

The second aspect of The Myth is that I am making a lot of money. Ha ha ha! Excuse me while I try and compose myself from all the laughter induced by this statement. FALSE. Now that the first aspect of The Myth has been debunked, it is easy to see that clearly I am not making much money. However for anyone who was still fooled by The Myth of 3 Jobs, an assumption like this would actually seem pretty reasonable, "Three jobs. Good for you. Make the money while you can before you start having kids." My response was, "I'm just trying to survive financially so that I can have kids." I think people who worked three jobs themselves at some point either a. did it in a different economy b. did it in fields that were higher paying (i.e. not creative fields) or c. chose jobs more wisely than I have. I can see how if I had one full time job and then two supplemental part time jobs, I could be rakin' in the bucks. People believing this part of The Myth are not off-base in their assumption. They just don't know me well enough to understand that sometimes I'm not the best planner.

I so appreciate the love and support I am receiving from, as I'm calling them, the cheerleaders in my life. My squad is growing and I would say it numbers in the 30's! There are some co-captains on the squad for sure, but the coach is most definitely my husband. It makes me teary as I type now and reflect on the unwavering support he's provided since January of 2010 when this transition process began. He gave me the freedom back then to leave the safety and security of my previous job and has not faltered since. He sets the example to everyone else in my life that, "Hattie needed to leave her old job to pursue what God wants her to do (though she may be a little unclear about what exactly that is). And look everyone we are going to support her and cheer her on every step of the way!" Then in my mind all my friends and family line up behind him in their navy blue letter sweaters with red "H's" sewn on the front like a little team of cheerleaders. Daniel has a navy blue wool baseball hat with a red H on the front. (The H is not for Hattie, he just liked the hat. But that's where my imagery comes from.)

I am so inspired by my own team and groups of people who form teams in times of crisis when they rally around a loved one who is diagnosed with cancer or another life-threatening disease. Whether it's a breast cancer walk or a 5K, I am so inspired reading the t-shirts of those who run by proclaiming they are running for "Team Kelly" or "Team Frank". It's a beautiful thing to be rallied around like that, to know that you are not alone, to know that you don't have to carry this "thing" alone.

There's a job I'd like: professional cheerleader. It's a shame that all the things I want to do don't actually pay (like the Fun Police idea). But I'm slowly realizing that maybe my call of what God wants me to do is not going to be done inside of a career, but in all the other parts of my life, in my relationships. Maybe the more important things I do in life I won't receive a paycheck for. I want to start a cheer squad for my cheer coach. I want to wear a blue letter sweater with a columbia blue "D" sewn onto it (Oak Park High colors, duh). I've received so many blessings from my team that they will spoil if I don't share them and pass them on to others in need. I can at the same time be the recipient of all this support and be a cheerleader myself. What a waste if I hoarded all this to myself. I want to wear a letter for someone else now. I mean after all, I have three jobs and some people have none. That's just selfish. I should give a few of mine away.