My Life

I have reached the goals I wanted for my life. I teach math in high school while also being involved with youth ministry. I have a group of teenage girls that come to my home once a week. We talk about all of the things going on in their lives. They trust me and look up to me. I am a teacher and a good role model for younger females. This is everything I have daydreamed about. I have a passion for teenagers and to be there for them whenever they need anything. I am someone that they know they can turn to for any advice or simply someone to talk to. The teenage boys down the street even come over and play basketball with my husband. Teaching helps me to have plenty of time with him and my own kids.  I am able to focus all of my attention on my family, ministry, and teaching. I am living the life I have always wanted!

My REAL Life…

I’m just kidding. That is not my life. Those are still simply my goals and dreams. I am not a teacher, yet. I do not have teenagers hanging around my home. The main reason would be that I don’t actually have my own home. I am not married. There are no children with my genes running around. My time as a youth pastor has begun, but it was definitely nothing that I imagined up in my dreams. Life is busy and full. There are a lot of things that require my attention. It feels like I am doing the same repetitious things without sight of the end. My life is full of a lot of jobs while I wish I just had a career.

I am still in college. That means I really don’t have much time to focus my attention anywhere except for school. Anyone who is a full time student should be shouting “Amen”. 15 college hours really equals about 45 if you put in all of the effort that the professors expect you to.

While not in school I have those pesky jobs that rob me of any extra free time my heart hopes for. I am a youth pastor, so that requires my time as well. I wish I could put more into it than I do. Sadly, my time there is limited. This is the life of a 21 year old girl.

My name is Destrea (Des-tree) by the way. I figure if you are going to read this blog, then you should at least see me as a real person. I am a real person that is probably a lot like you. Throughout this blog I will be open and authentic. These are my thoughts on life right now. They may not all be the right thoughts, but they are the honest ones.

Caught between “what the heck” and “holy cow”

As I said before, my life is not everything I thought it would be right now. You would think someone would have given us a better heads up about this stage in our lives. There is no warning or guidelines. We are just thrown in. I cannot count how many times I was caught between the roads of “what the heck” and “holy cow”. There are a lot of expectations and requirements to fulfilling those expectations.

Remember those annoying jobs I mentioned earlier? Let’s talk about those. Obviously, I’m not a fan of them. I put in a load of work and I am not making nearly enough money. Every month I have to wonder if I will have enough to pay for my necessities. And yet I must continue.

Babysitting

At one point my income was relying completely on babysitting. That means that every weekend I was putting to bed someone else’s child. Many of my afternoons were spent picking up kids from school and helping with homework. Right now I am actually on call to baby sit for 14 different families. While living the life of babysitting I developed some skills like changing diapers, cleaning vomit, and making boo boos better. I had things I needed to pay for, so I babysat as much as I could to pay for them. I am not completely complaining here. It is not that I hate children. I love the kids that I look after. Babysitting is one of the higher ranking jobs that I have had. Notice, though, that it is still a job. It still takes big chucks of my time for an hourly wage.

Working in Food

There was also a time that I worked in fast food. I would rather be broke than ever do that again. I passionately hated working in fast food. Probably the most popular job for people my age is waiting tables. There are those fabulous nights when you have really great tips. However, more often than not, you have the tables that are a pain to deal with who leave little or no tip at all. I give out many props to the waiters and waitress out there! It baffles me that you are able to keep smiling even though that one table is full of stuck up punks that won’t tip more than two bucks.

Substituting

It is a lot of work to do these bothersome jobs. No one wants to do them. On my way to any job I have to tell myself to keep going. One step at a time. Keep putting one foot in front of the other. Finally, I am almost able to see an end. After getting 30 college hours I am now able to work as a substitute teacher. It has been the best job I have had so far. There are still a few negative factors. One of those being that I wake up at 4:30am. Let’s not kid ourselves, that’s pretty early.  What is even worse is there have been many times that I woke up, got ready, and then never got called in. No call means no job which in turn means no money.

Here’s to hoping for the dream

This is what we do. We look for jobs to pay for school in hopes of finally reaching our career. I don’t know about you, but it is not always fun for me. Unfortunately, there are some people who are working these jobs without moving towards a career. I only have one thing to say to those people: that sucks! There is no way I would be torturing myself with these crappy jobs without some sort of hope that I, one day, will not be doing them anymore. I very much look forward to a steady and reliable income. One day I will enjoy what I do for a living. I hope I always stay grateful for that.