It has been suggested by congress last week to eliminate Americorps funding, in addition to several other programs, to try to curb federal spending. A new budget will be proposed in a few weeks and could possibly interrupt my Americorps service. A mild panic has flooded me over the past weekend after opening up to the possibility of losing my job with no fault of my own, yet again.
After graduating from college, I spent a year searching for a job relevant to my education, experiences and interests, but worked as a fill-in substitute teacher in the meanwhile. At last I was hired at a Fresno branch of a national non-profit organization that I love and admire, only to be let go 3 days later when my background check did not got through. My supervisor called me in to his office privately, told me the background did not go through and asked me to take my things and leave the building immediately. He told me he would hold the position for me until this got cleared up since he believed this to be an error. Confused and hurt, I left and began investigating why a woman who passed the Deparment of Justice and FBI's background checks to work as a public school substitute teacher could not pass the background for office work at a NPO.
Heres what happened:
A few years earlier my identity was stolen by a woman in Sanger,CA and used my identity when arrested for committing a felony. During her trial they corrected the identity to her true name and had an additional charge of "providing false identity to a police officer." I had first known about it when began to receive collection notices from Fresno County Superior Court in the mail while I lived in Davis. After going to Fresno County Superior Court, I was told the issue would be cleared up since the person of interest was not me. This was November 2006, fast foward to April 2010 and once again Fresno Superior Court has failed me.
Having no prior exposure to the court system, I blindly navigated my way from person to person, being transferred to all sorts of people trying to figure everything out. Eventually I had to go to the Reedley court house, get documents from them and fax them to the background company to clear it up. Exactly 2 weeks after being let go, everything was cleared up and I was anxious to get my job back as promised by my supervisor. I called him, excited to announce I could start work as soon as tomorrow only to be told he has filled the position. Douche bag. So I went back to substitute teaching, which paid much better anyways. But the powerlessness I felt after this horrible experience has remained.
Americorps allowed me to work in the field of my interest, using my skills and education to serve a non-profit organization and a population that needs me. Yes, Neighborcare Health needs me, they identified me as a person with the skills and background that would benefit their organization and their patients. And I benefit because I am working towards my goals and working for an organzation that matches my values system, even if working for only a fraction of the salary regular employees receive. Yes, I am overworked and yes, I am horribly underpaid considering I moved from out-of-state to a high cost-of-living city. But I love the work I do at Neighborcare, I am good at it and I am personally fulfilled. I have a sense of personal value, power and control through the chaos of life. The thought that I may once again lose control of my life at no fault of my own, even if only in losing my job, is terrifying.
My generation is the "You can do anything you set your mind to" generation. We grew up having our minds filled with hope and possiblities to succeed, that with hard work and a college education, you can go anywhere and do anything! Maybe this was true, during the economic boom of the 1990's when Clinton was in office, unemployment was at an all time low, the housing market was booming and our country was had real wealth (defined in my terms as in manageable debt and competitive in a global economy). The realities of graduating from college in 2009, the worst economic environment since the Great Depression, were far different from the land of milk and honey promised to us by our grade school teachers. No milk nor honey, it is dog-eat-dog in the job market and a giant pitbull had just bite my head off.
I think this video exmpliefies all the lies we were brainwashed with in our youth.
No comments:
Post a Comment