Lies in a Season of Tribulation by Launa McNeilly

It's getting close to the end of another year and I'm going to reflect on the jobs that I have held in my life. I'm going to skip over the first job which was babysitting. That went fine since I hadn't had children yet.  I worked a summer job at a preschool type affair. Lots of kids, in a school setting, hated it. It might have been that since I was in school myself, that I really could of thought of better places to be on summer break then in a stupid classroom. I didn't repeat that job. Instead of being smart and going to college, I got married and had three children. Now that's a job!  Once I grew up and figured out what I had done, I filed for divorce. This took me about ten years of staying at home being just mom and wife. Liked the mom part, not so crazy about the other. I will give husband number one the credit of allowing me to grow up in a safe environment and giving me three great kids.

I got a taste of the real world while separated and waiting for a divorce. I worked for one week in a tanning factory. I'm not big on manual labor but I got hired because I answered the question, "whats nine times seven?" with sixty-three. Yes, I got it right. He hired me on the spot.  Now if I had been smart I would have run out the door and never returned, but, of course, being new at the outside the home job thing and having three mouths plus my own to feed, I stayed. They must of thought I was smart because I could multiply so they put me upstairs to mix chemicals. I don't work well with chemicals, especially when they tell you not to get any on you and they make you wear heavy rubber gloves that go half way up your arm with an apron that weighed more than I did.  Don't linger on that image too long because I didn't.

My next job was serving burgers and fries at McDonalds. That was exciting. I needed the bread so I could buy the other kind of bread. And milk, etc. My ego took a hit with that job.  Moved up the ladder to serving meals in a real restaurant. I liked the tips but that was pretty much it. 

I wanted a career, not a job. Without a college degree in my back pocket or some kind of special schooling, a job was all I was going to get. So I did the next best thing. I got married again.

Husband number two's family owned a restaurant which I worked at. I was now elevated to the position of hostess. Until the restaurant got swamped and I had to wait tables in heels. That, takes talent and alot of balance.

Now don't get me wrong, I didn't marry just for the hostessing job. But this blog is about my working career and not about that.  Moving on, after six years of hostessing  I went to cosmetology school. Did wonderful for about three months and then due to unforseen circumstances, no fault of my own, I filed for divorce.  Should of been available to go on those business trips with him, but again, moving right along, divorce number two.

Once again, I am single with three children, one in college. I went to work as a teller in a bank. Now there I got to wear the nice clothes and they didn't have any chemicals that I needed to handle. It was going fine. Along comes husband number three. Don't panic, third time's a charm.

My husband was transferred to another city with his job and so I went to work at another bank. This bank put me in the drive up window at the busiest branch in the city. Forget the heels and the nice clothes, I was in the trenches. Not liking banking anymore. I got my real estate license and went to work at one of the city's agencies. My husband gets transferred once again to another city. This city was bigger and harder to drive in. I was lucky to find my way to the closest supermarket and home again. Real Estate was out of the question.

Once we had settled in our own new home (had rented a house for a year) I again picked up  the paper and read the want ads. An interesting position sort of popped off the page and I made the call. I decided that I was pretty good at child rearing (none of the kids were in jail) so I went into theraputic fostercare. Well, I should say my husband and I. Poor man, what he puts up with. Anyway, we had many children grace our doorstep, some stayed and some didn't. This career move led us to our four adopted children. Some kids you can't wait to give back to the State and then there were those that we wanted to keep. This was a job I did well. I am trained well and still alive.

My husband and I decided to move back to our beloved hometown of Owls Head and build our retirement home. Kids were happy, we were happy. Here I am and the last job that I had was jewelry store owner. Went well until the ecomomy tanked. I am selling all aspects of the business. Would love to keep some of my jewelry pieces but no such luxury for me.

This brings me to present day and I now have a career instead of a job. I write books. So far only the first is published but my agent is working to get the second sold. Understand at this point in time, my career does not pay well. Hopefully, like with all business plans, give me five years and see where I am.

I have pretty much told you of my life jobs. You are probably wondering why. I guess in life we have choices to make and we make them. People will sometimes comment,"Don't you wish you could be that young and know what you know now?" My answer to that is, God forbid, NO!  Why, you might ask, well, lets think about it. As hard as my life has been, I have lived this long, have a wonderful husband, and nine pretty special kids. If I were able to go back and do it all over again, would I make different choices? As difficult as life can be, what if I chose differently and it ultimately was the wrong way to go? I think some of my choices are regrettable but I learned from them and moved on. It could have been worse and I for one would not want to go down that road again.

The old adage, "when life throws you lemons, make lemonade."  What if you don't have the sugar to put in it? That in my opinion would leave a very sour taste in one's mouth. Or how about, "you made your bed, now lie in it." Why? That means you'll just mess  it up again! There are a litany of other sayings but I think you get my drift. You make your decisions the best way you can and if you're smart, you will learn something and progress. It has helped shape me into who I am today. I'm okay with that.