It's a Beautiful Day

Even though it is overcast here. A little bit (or a lot) about me. I am a fairly private person. I am married and live in the southeastern region of our country. I am in search of life changes and improvements that can bring inner peace, which I so desperately need. I am in search of happiness, which I believe will come after obtaining inner peace. Civility is important to me, as I feel that most people in their day to day interactions have pretty much lost. Why you may ask is civility so important to me? I have worked in customer service for roughly 20 years (in one capacity or another) and I am sick of tired of rudeness and individuals truly believing that ignorance is bliss (or excusable). I do have two college degrees and over 30 hours of graduate course work (and a culinary certificate). Even with this stated, I have been, "typed-casted," into customer service and call center work which I dislike. You may ask, well why not quit or do something else? Good question but the reality is much more bleak (even before the current economic crisis and job shortages started) for me. Even with my eduction, positive attitude and thinking, flexibility, diverse work and education background (and I fairly well-rounded I have traveled to a number of countries over the years and lived abroad when I was in my early 20's), I am usually only offered customer service related jobs (and usually entry-level jobs at that). When I am offered something else it either requires me to take $10 an hour or less. Not sure what part of the country you live in, but here I cannot make a living on $10 an hour.

My husband and I are not frivolous people. I bought a small frill-less home (before we met) that is extremely plain and small (I also bought into the notion that homeownership is rewarding and fulfilling). We are do not spend on lavish dinners, hanging out, shopping for clothes, gadgets or the newest "must-haves". Our biggest expense after the mortgage and car note happens to be food. Why food you may ask? We are foodies!!! But we clip coupons, we buy a lot of our produce from our local farmer's market, buy organic when it is on sell and practical and buy a good percentage of our groceries on sale and/or with the aid of COUPONS!  Oh yeah, we are coupon fanatics. So now that you are doing the math, you are still probably wondering, so why are you still struggling, why not go back to school and better myself? The answers are the following: For us it is hard to live off one salary (we like most couples need two-income to truly make it or hit the lottery) and the type of customer service work I do is not conducive to self-improvement. Although most of my previous employers would disagree. I can possibly do online schooling. The reality is I do better being in the midst of knowledge transfer and sharing (AKA formal physical classroom setting). My work schedule is not conducive (and has not been for years) for me to take a morning or afternoon or evening course (because my work schedules tend to cut right in the middle of them and/or overtime at random times may be required of me and in order to keep my job with little notice).  And the sad reality is that most of the jobs I have had, do not require a college degree :-(    Like I mentioned before, I do have some culinary training (that was more to satisfy the foodie in me than to land a lucrative job). The training has come in handy, because I love to make gourmet meals (which I do several times a week). Job wise unless I am willing to work for $10 an hour or less, I have not been able to land a job in the culinary arena either. 

I was just listening to NPR the other day (I try to listen to at least a few segments/shows a day when in the car going from point A to point B). The reporter stated that most Americans even in 2010 do not have a college degree. Only 27% hold a bachelor's degree or higher. With that stated, why is it so hard, virtually impossible for me to obtain a decent job with decent pay?! My gripe regarding lack of employment opportunities started well before our current economic woes. I realize I do live in an area that has a high concentration of graduate degrees but I am not competing for the jobs that require that level of education, what gives?! I am 100% convinced that by being a black female, race has played the largest role in limiting my job opportunities.

Yes I could have majored in some form of engineering, biology, chemistry, accounting, business, journalism/communication or another hard science. If I knew then what I know now, I would have definitely majored (or at least minored) in a hard science, which may have opened a few more employment opportunities or not.

My husband and I consider ourselves to be fairly practical, family-oriented with a strong religious foundation. In being family-oriented we try to spend as much as possible with our families (we visit, eat meals together when possible, social activities together). We have very few friends. We are do not, "put-on" or add "airs" to ourselves. We are really good hearted-good spirited individuals  We, like some of you out there have little or no interaction with the family members that either look down on us for not earning more money or look down on us for not being more materialistic and valuing the same shallow things they do. We are not like that.  

About my age, I will not reveal it (not completely). I am not ashamed of my age, actually fairly proud of it. I by some definitions entered middle age status this past July even though I am in my 30's. I am happy with me in the respects of my maturity and life experiences. I feel much more comfortable with me than I did in my 20's. For me at least in my 30's that I know who I am, I have a lot of life and work experience. I am also at a point where the opinions (especially the negative ones) others may have about me, have no bearing on my life. I look forward to my 40's being a great time of self-discovery and simply being even better than my 30's. 

Maybe I will be more optimistic this afternoon or tomorrow. Maybe, we will see....