So I Did A Thing
- Rosetta Mandisa
- Oct 10, 2020
- 5 min read
From as far back as I can remember, as a junior in high school in fact, I’ve always had a job. I was fifteen when I landed my first job a daycare two blocks from my high school. I stayed at that job until after I graduated and I started working at the VA. A few months after starting my first year of college I found out I was pregnant with my son. I continued to take classes and work until my son was born. When money started getting tight, I found a second, part-time job at a Burger King near my apartment.
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For the greater part of the past year’s since graduating high school, I have always and when I say always, I mean ALWAYS worked two jobs. Sprinkled in with work, I took classes at every opportunity. It may have taken me fifteen years but I graduated with a bachelor’s degree and then two years later with a master’s degree. Both degrees are in education and becoming a teacher did not do much to help in the finance department so all through college and after, I have continued to work a full time and a part time job. There was one point at which I had three jobs. I taught full time at a school building, part time online for a university and part time at JCPenney’s.
And so went this cycle for years. There were times when I would stop working a part time job but it wasn’t for very long. The car would breakdown and throw a monkey wrench in my finances. My son would need new cleats, new track shoes, money for an out of county school trip he was selected to go on. A teacher’s salary didn’t always make room for life’s little extra’s. Therefore, I worked part time whenever necessary.
Last year, however, I had created a master budget. I mean, I knew where every penny was going! There was nothing I hadn’t planned for. I set it up in anticipation of paying down some debt so that I could quit my part time job and live comfortably. Then my son called, he needed me to take my grandson for a few months. Of course, I couldn’t say no. My mom helped me out and kept my son so that I could finally finish up my last semester of college so it was only right that I did the same thing for Saleem. About two months shy of my plan to quit my part time job, my grandson came to live with me. Some people seem to believe that teacher’s make a decent salary but with my grandson’s daycare bill being $170 a week, there was no way I could quit my part time job.
I’m one of those people who love having a lot of irons in the fire. Doing the impossible is what I’ve done since high school. When I was told that I wasn’t good enough to graduate from a prestigious high school I was enrolled in on scholarship, I buckled down, focused hard and graduated with a B average. When my sister and I were told we wouldn’t be able to take care of each other on our own at 15 and 18, we found jobs, worked hard, rented an apartment and never looked back. When I got pregnant with my son, I was told I would be on the system and would never finish college. Well, I’ve graduated college twice! Whenever, I’ve heard the words, “you can’t… or you will never,” that only fueled me to prove whoever said it wrong.
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So working hard, working two or three jobs was nothing for me. I did what I had to do to overcome whatever obstacle was standing between me and my goal. One way or another I was going to have what I wanted. As years have gone by though and my relationship with God has grown, what I do has become much less about what I want and more about what God needs for me to do. Even with working two jobs, I make the time to do the things necessary to keep me in focus and in line with God’s presence in my life. My grandmother has always said that if you sit quiet long enough, you can hear God speak. Truthfully, I didn’t always believe that. As I got older, I understood that a little bit better and I also understand that God will make a path to get you to go in the direction He wants you to go. While I was Queen of the home-work-work-work-family-life balance, God had other plans.
I guess if I wasn’t going to slow down and do what God asked, He was going to make me! When the pandemic hit, my part time job closed down. I was able to work from home so I kept my grandson at home with me saving myself that $170 a week daycare fee. When I took my grandson back home in June one would think that I’d just settle into my summer and not worry about working any other job than my teaching position since I no longer had my grandson’s bill to pay. Nope! Not your girl! As soon as the store opened back up and my manager called to ask if I wanted to work a few hours a week, I said, “oh, sure!”
School started in August and I was back to working two jobs. Then September came. My part time job announced that they had filed for bankruptcy and would be closing all stores by the end of October. For me, that was God saying, “ok, my dear, now you will have no choice but to slow down and do what I told you to do three years ago!” When my love asked me what I was going to do once the store closed, (I am most certain he thought I was going to say, “find another job”) however, my reply was, “I’m going back to school!” Even that reply made him groan.
This past Friday we received my acceptance letter to theology school. I am beyond excited! For three years I have been trying to figure out how I could do this with everything I already had going on in my life. Well, God closed a window and opened a door! What I have learned in recent years is that there is always room for growth and when God calls you higher, there is nothing you can do to stop it.
Climb and maintain…:)
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