Jobs, Drudgery or Dance?

I got a call from Zilla this a.m. She got the job! I don’t write as much about being a Mommy Blogger as I could have if I would have had I been a blogger rather than a writer for print publications when my lil’ darlin’ was small back in the Dark Ages. But I am still a Mommy Blogger and will always be one, because I am a mother and a writer.
There is nothing more beautiful in the world than the bright,happy morning voice of my daughter. She is usually a bit grumpy in the mornings, but when she wakes up happy the whole world wakes up happy.
I woke up this morning to the bright clear voice of my Zilla. From the first resounding phoneme, I knew that she had been hired for the job she’s been hoping and interviewing for over the last few weeks. This is a big deal… for oh so many reasons.
My girl always did have her own timetable for everything. She decided to graduate from High School a year early. She made this decision a few weeks before the end of her Junior year. She received her diploma from University in December, and she then moved to Minnesota, in January, to be with her beloved, Tree Boy. She had been applying to graduate programs in Speech Pathology while moving in spite of being more attuned to and tending to ace her audiology courses. Dame Fortuna intervened this time and said quite clearly to her, “Slow your jets, Hot Rod.” By the time she was receiving ding letters from the graduate schools, she had realized on her own that her real passion is audiology.
She’d just turned 22 in January. I realized that she was oh so young and making oh so big career and life path changes. I was actually relieved that she would have more time to decide what her career path should be as she and Tree Boy plan their lives together. He will go to grad school in a Natural Resources program.
She did land a job in a bank within a couple weeks of moving to Minnesota. That was good, very good, in this economy with so many people, both under-employed and unemployed, competing for every job. But, boy-oh-boy, was this not their ideal life. Squeaking by and needing to request our help when ends just didn’t meet was not what we wanted for her. We were willing to help her because she wanted to go into the relationship with Tree Boy on a 50/50 basis financially. I understood that desire and supported her in this belief as much as possible. I had stayed in relationships in the past because I felt I had no options and no financial, social, or familial support system.
The strain this was putting on Hubby’s and my budget and relationship was significant. But you do what you have to do and hope and plan for better times, right? Zilla kept applying for better jobs all the while working at the bank. She was part time at the bank and somehow, miraculously, would usually get almost 40 hours. The new American work week became really clear for during with her acquaintance with the 38 hour work week that means an employee has no guaranteed schedule, a pay scale that is based on temp and part time labor, no benefits, with the only certainty being that all the frogs in the pond fighting for not enough flies to feed them all. A second job was always appealing but how do you schedule two jobs without guaranteed schedules.
I remember when vacation and perks determined what job a person decided to take. The corporatocracy has eroded the American Dream. A nation of part-time job insecurities and stress on the average American that eats away at energy and the ability to live a good life beyond the walls of a shop or office.
But for me there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Zilla landed a position that has just been created. At least she was smart enough to study a subject for which there will be a growing base of jobs for the foreseeable future. She will be working as an Audiological Assistant. Eventually this will help her get into a grad school of her choosing, but in the mean while, she will get to work with the nuts and bolts of hearing amplification and clarification equipment and talk to the people who depend on it.
I’m so proud of my little ‘Zilla. She starts the 24th. She never lets anything get in the way of moving forward toward her goals. This is all any parent can ask of children. Positive movement. No drudgery here. Let’s dance!
 

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