An Agreement

I generally disagree with what my American History prof will say or cover in class. He likes to get off on wild tangents and rant about things that have nothing to do with the lesson. He's a much older man, and his nickname around the History major peeps is 'Dinosaur'. I would definitely have to agree. He does like to talk about his much younger wife and his two very young boys'. He likes to say that he's a pre-industrial worker. He likes to rant about Sears' bad customer service. He goes on about things that are pointless.

His exams are hard and his classes have a high failure rate. But still, he's here. And he'll probably stay until hell freezes over. I can actually see him crawling into the classrooms just to teach (or rant, your pick).

BUT, one day last week, he was talking about The Great Depression and also relating to today's Great Recession. At some point in the lecture, he was talking about the percentages of the unemployed persons in the nation, states, and so on. He finally said something that caught my attention. He started to talk about if a person wanted a fulfilling, well-being life, to get the hell out of Tennessee. Get the hell out of Tennessee. GET THE HELL OUT OF TENNESSEE. Wow. What a small but significant statement, to me.

You see, my family has struggled as far back as I know to just have enough to get by. I grew up in a happy, but poor home. By the time I was in HS, I was embarrassed to get a waiver form at the beginning of the school year in order to get free lunch, but I had to. All my life, I was not in the know of my family's financial status. Both of my parents worked hard. Real hard. My father was a supervisor at a wood factory and my mother worked at a factory as well. I was an only child until eight, when my sister was born. Little did I know that soon after that, my parents filed for bankruptcy. We moved. By the time I was in the eighth grade, I had three younger siblings, and everything that I wanted to do could not be met. The only thing I got to participate in on and off was softball.

Now, after moving out (by force) and living on my own,I happen to be in their shoes. I've worked two jobs and still didn't have enough for my bills. I've lived with roommates who have ended up screwing me over. I've had struggles to stay afloat.

I decided to go back to school, because I was simply tired of being broke. I knew (and still know) that I would be broke throughout college, but also knew I would be better off to endure that hardship and be rewarded than to continue with what I'm currently doing.

Now, to move on with his statement, I had thoughts of moving to where my husband is from, which is not TN. I brought the idea up to him, and he didn't like it at first but come to terms with it. We didn't want to live being broke for the rest of our lives. Soon after we came to this agreement, we decided on the how and what and etc. for moving. It will be hard. But we'd be better off. After a week of this decision being made, I was sitting in class and heard what my prof said. He is actually from where my husband is from, and I think he probably wishes he could be there now, but his wife probably wouldn't. Oh well, his loss.

Tennessee may be a gorgeous place to live. But, it's more a place for retired people to live. There seems to be nothing for the youth or the young adults to do here. Maybe the greater Nashville area has more to offer, but not where I live. And throughout Tennessee, it's hard to find a computer science fielded job without the proper connections and status. And that's not just for comp sci people, but for most others as well. The only way I got my current job is because I was connected to the right friend of a friend of a family member who would get me hired. And I work at a convenience store! My first job as a day care child coordinator was the EXACT SAME WAY.

I may seem to be ranting a bit, but I think I have a point. There's only a few things here for someone to  strive for and those careers/jobs really do not pay a lot unless you have the right connections.