When this situation all began, I taught school within a mile of my home. I loved my job. The year before the accident, I worked part-time and then the person who had the other part-time position left and I was offered the position full-time. I really wasn't sure that I wanted to go full-time. I didn't work because we needed the income. I worked because I had the best job in the county! I really did love my job! I could go on and on about why I loved my job, but I don't know how many people would really be interested. But, I loved it enough that I would have done it for free.
Richard worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory and he specialized in lightning protection among other things. His degree is in electrical engineering. He also did design changes to facilities at the Lab. He had a top secret security clearance. That is about all I know about what he did there.
After the accident, I still worked full-time, and at that time we did need my income because we had a lot of additional expenses and Richard income was sporadic because we were dealing with short-term disability, long-term disability, and income insurance. In the middle of all of that, sometimes we got a lot of money at once and sometimes we went for a long time with nothing. Thank goodness I had my steady income (after he came home from the hospital.)
Our son had one and a half more years after the accident before his high school graduation. The place we lived was about 7000 ft elevation and Richard needed oxygen 24 hours a day. When we traveled to places that were not as high of an elevation, his oxygen levels were high enough that he didn't need to be on oxygen during the day. It was for that reason we thought that it was best that we moved to a location that was lower in elevation. Waiting until after our son graduated seemed like the right thing to do, but after that, we were free to go.
Our oldest daughter, who was married, lived in Las Vegas, we decided that would be the best place. We had three grandchildren there by then, and we wanted to be closer to them. Still, I loved my job, and I knew I would never be able to teach again, especially in Las Vegas, because Richard would need me to take him to doctors' appointments and the bus system is severly lacking in Las Vegas, unlike Los Alamos. In Los Alamos, the bus system would pick him up and take him to his appointments and bring him home if they were local appointments, which about half of them were. The other half I would schedule for after work or take time off. Sometimes our son was able to take him as well.
After we moved, I needed to find a source of income. Our daughter and I decided to work as a team selling real estate. The schedule was way more flexible than teaching school. I could take Richard to his appointments, which continue to be several times a week, and still do my job. I am not a salesperson. I am a teacher. The job is hard for me because to be honest, it's not my chosen profession. I hate marketing. It is WAY outside my comfort zone. I hate being worried about when the next commission check will come. I hate seeing people as a commission check, and it is stressful to have others depend on you for their income, which is what working in a team is all about. I have really enjoyed helping people sell their home and find one that they love. It is those moments that make the uncomfortable feelings of the job worth it.
At first I was hoping that selling real estate would provide enough income for the medical expenses that we would like to try that are not covered by insurance, but that hasn't worked out too well for us. Those treatments are too expensive.
When Richard worked as an engineer and I worked as a teacher, I never thought that it would be any different. I thought he would always be an engineer, and I would always be a teacher. It hasn't quite worked out that way for us, but I am grateful that I am still able to do something, and that I can help people when they are buying and selling a home, even if is not as busy as I would like. It certainly has opened my eyes to many things that I would have never experienced if I still taught school. I am not sure how long I will keep doing it, but for now, I am a realtor.
Richard is no longer an electrical engineer, he is Santa Claus and works 6 weeks out of the year. (There will be another post about that.) He still has the mind of an engineer though, and that has it's challenges because people think that he isn't smart. Some people don't realize that he was ever an engineer, and some people think that he lost all congnition when he had a brain injury. Let me assure you, he did not. This is a man that could and did fix anything in our home that broke. He could brain storm and find answers to just about any issue that came up. He has done basically every home repair and modification that can be done, and he does it to code. We have never paid to do things that we can do ourselves, and there is little that Richard hasn't been able to do himself. He is meticulous about doing it right. Although he can't physically do the fixing anymore, but we have actually found a wonderful solution to that. Our local missionaries are required to do so many hours of service every week. They don't know how to do what Richard knows how to do, but they can physically do it, so Richard teaches, and they learn. We get the things done that need to be done, and the young missionaries get some knowledge that they might not have otherwise acquired. It works out pretty well. I am grateful for them, and hopefully they are grateful for us as well.
If I were to give advice here. My advice would be that if you have a college degree, have a trade as well. You never know how life will turn out, and it usually isn't what you would have predicted. It is better to be too prepared than not prepared enough. You never know when you will have to make a career change, not because you want to but because you are forced to.
We live in a world that is becoming more and more automated. Many people are loosing their jobs to technology. Be prepared for your job to be eliminated. Know how to do at least two things, more if you can. You can never have too many skills. Don't sit back and think that the government will take care of you if you loose your job due to technology. Be proactive. You won't regret it, no matter how much education you have.
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