Sunday, September 21, 2008

The Light at the End of the Tunnel?

So for those of you who know me, you know I've been working now as a teacher for 3 years, despite how much I hate my job. The hours suck if you're not a total morning person, which I am not. I have to be AT work at 7:30 a.m. or earlier, and even though school gets out at 2:45 I am often at meetings after school until 4:30 or 5:00. I get paid salary so I don't make any overtime, even though I routinely go in on weekends, holidays, and nights. I am constantly under pressure to raise test scores while cutting budgets, and until I pass the PRAXIS exam, I can get fired at any moment without even being told why. Basically I'm like a slave to my job, and true they did give me a raise this year, but it's not a rewarding profession most days and I don't care how much they pay me, I want out!
Anyway, I started my wedding dress company this spring with the idea in mind that I could hopefully build the business enough that I could do that instead of teaching, and we're actually starting to make enough money that it would be a possibility in the near future. However, I also learned that owning a company is a huge pain in the butt, and it's almost as stressful as teaching. So I've been really depressed lately trying to figure out how we could pull things together so I can quit, because honestly after a lot of soul searching I realized that I do not, nor have I ever really wanted to work anywhere except in my own home, especially now that I have a home that is nice enough to really appreciate. I love the dress store, but I really just don't want to work anymore. I've been on my own and running in the rat race for 10 years (1/3 of my life!) and I'm TIRED! I graduated and came to BYU when I was 17, and have been working to pay rent, insurance, car payments, mortgages, cell-phone bills, and credit cards for a REALLY long time now. I put myself through college, and then I put my husband through college, and then I bought a house when I was 23... and a bigger house when I was 25... and now I'm exhausted.
Our contract with the realtor who is selling the 300 West house is up in June, and if we haven't sold by then we're going to approach the hospital and try to negotiate something with them on our own.
Today Luis and I sat down and crunched some numbers and we realized that if our starter home sells for as little as the hospital wants to pay for it, I could realistically quite both my jobs in the spring and just take a part time somewhere. 20 hours a week, nothing to take home, no leadership responsibilities... heaven.
If we can sell to them for how much we think our house is worth, I can quit my job altogether and just stay home for the first time in my adult life. You know- just chill out, cook meals, work in the garden, do crafts, take Andrei to his afterschool programs, obsess over my Primary lessons... clean my house they way I actually want it to be cleaned.
Sigh... if only...

3 comments:

melissa said...

Good luck!

The Mason Family said...

Yay! There really is NOTHING better than getting to be a stay-at-home mom and wife! I went through all the same stuff- working for 10 years from part-time to full-time corporate to self-employment- I think we all have to experience the gamut before we can truly appreciate how awesome it is to stay home :) I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

Alisha said...

Wow, I'm tired just reading this! I think you totally deserve to have that time to yourself and work in the home. I hope you guys can find a solution that works for you. I would love to have my own business, doing something I love... But I agree, at the end of the day I want my only business to be my family.