#Resist

Today’s post is a writing challenge. This is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once and all the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the writer will take them. Until now.

My words are: unsavory, nettlesome, homeless, skip town, repercussions, tackling

They were submitted by: http://thethreegerbers.blogspot.ch/

Behold the saga that is my life this year so far, ya'll... 

____________________________________________________

2016 was unsavory. Nettlesome. A horrorshow. For so many of us, it was utter shit.

The election cycle was absolutely exhausting; we lost so many inspirational artists—actors, musicians, public figures, activists; and we had numerous deadly shootings by domestic terrorists and police officers ripping new wounds in already hurting communities.

I saw so many posts towards the end of the year willing for it to all be over, for 2017 to bring on better tidings. But, I knew better.

All 2017 was bringing us was Trump, and I knew with every fiber of my being that nothing good was going to come of that.

Since those last two digits switched signaling the end of the year, I lost one of my best friends, my fur baby. I had 10 years with my Great Dane, Cap. I got lucky—Danes live 6-8 years on average—to have him as long as I did, but it hasn’t been easy letting go. I don’t know if I have gone even a couple days without crying because my brain is so used to him being there. I see him out of the corner of my eye, hear him snoring, wonder if he wants to share my Pop-Tart before realizing it’s all over, and he’s gone. It kills me every time, and I devolve into a blubbering mess wailing for her baby.

I also left my retail job to work in a childcare center. I was told I would be working with toddlers ages 2ish to 4. I was supposed to be teaching these kids the alphabet, numbers, colors, shapes, how to write letters, and basic math. That was my goal at least for the older ones, and it’s not something I am a stranger to doing by any means. But once I actually started, it was nothing at all what the owner described to me. My first day I was thrown into a room with literally 20 kids ranging in ages from 2 to 10 while my coworker sat on her phone in the next room. There was zero control, the coworker eventually got up and hit one of the kids before sitting back down to get on her phone, and the kids went absolutely crazy. I have never in my life even in a damn Chuck E. Cheese seen children act that way. My first day I broke up 4 fist fights. 4. The second day I worked I literally had to carry a child, a 6-7 years old, 13 times from going near the door. She didn’t just want to be near the door; she knew she wasn’t supposed to be there, refused to move, and laughed when I would ask her to go back to the room where the kids were supposed to be. Every now and then the coworker would look up and scream at her, but for the most part, I had zero help. That same day two different children climbed the 3 foot partition between the rooms multiple times, jumped from crib to crib in their shoes, one ripped his finger open, and there were more fights. In other words, some of these children shouldn’t be in a daycare, and some of the workers shouldn’t be there either. There was no soap in the bathrooms, no juice for the kids, no cups to give them water, no napkins to wipe their noses… I really didn’t know what the hell I was getting into. 4 days in, though, and I had already bonded with a lot of them. I literally had 4 butts occupying space in my lap and more piled beside me every day I worked--the kids wanted that connection and attention, and that's what I wanted when I took the job. I couldn’t move without someone wanting a hug or a zerbert (a raspberry kiss), or to be picked up, so I wanted to try to stick it out and be there for them. Unfortunately, it just didn’t work out that way. I walked out on Monday afternoon after a mother got in my face screaming at me and threatening to kick my ass because her child was told she would be put in time out if she didn’t behave. I had already been told this mother was an issue, but apparently money means more than the safety of employees. Not only that, the entire time this was going on, the owner was aware of the situation and was too busy to come do anything about it and my coworker was too busy on Facebook. I have never in my life walked out of a job before, but I am absolutely not going to work somewhere that values money over the health and safety of both the children going and my own damn self. When you have a grown ass woman screaming that she’s going to fuck a woman up in front of that many children, what are the children going to act like?

So here I am. Jobless. Nearly motivationless. My anxiety is in overdrive already, and I feel those depression feelings creeping in. Tough times are triggers, and even though I can roll with the punches like Fiona Gallagher, everyone has a breaking point. This week, my mom tries to help me out and get me a job interview with an after school program because I really would love to work with kids, and the day after I discuss it with the owner and director, the owner gets arrested for allegations of child molestation and sexual battery. Innocent until proven guilty and all that, but what the fuck? The allegations stem from a family accusation as he really doesn’t have anything to do with the day to day processes of the center itself, but it will still have a lasting effect on the business no matter whether he turns out to be innocent or not. It's a terrible thing to have happened altogether, but my brain cannot even fathom how I got from where I was at the end of the year to this point this fast.

And then we have Trump as president. I’ll be the first to say I am terrified. Really, terrified doesn’t cover it especially after the recent leaks concerning his behavior and the wording of an anti-LGBT executive order that (fortunately and for now) didn’t come to pass. It let me know that his administration has its sights set on people like me just as we feared, and it doesn’t look good. And that’s just one aspect of a presidency that has literally left the country shaken. Muslim bans, the imminent repeal of health insurance that so many people can’t afford any other way (and this is coming from someone who still cant afford it), and the appointment of so many inexperienced or demonstrably prejudiced white people to his cabinet has left us all shaken. I’m angry; I’m afraid; and, I’m fed the fuck up. I’m tackling the issues every day on social media, signing petitions, making calls, sending emails, starting my own petitions, and eventually I will be able to march myself even if I have to travel to do it, but it doesn’t feel like enough. No matter how many calls were made to senators here in Georgia, both still voted to confirm Betsey DeVos who has no business as the Secretary of Education. Sometimes I wonder what the hell it’s all for, what the point of the fight is… Sometimes I want to pack up and skip town despite the family repercussions that would be involved if I did. There’s a part of me that knows if I didn’t have my son, I would be visiting friends all over the country, sleeping on couches despite my social anxiety, basically homeless, because no where feels like home these days, and I really don’t know what to do with myself.

But…

Whenever I go to bed feeling absolutely defeated, I almost always wake up inspired by the news of a strong woman leading our resistance or by the words of a friend on facebook who is prepared to battle for us all even if it means risking everything.

She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.

Those words have given me life this week, and so I’ll pick up the words I use as weapons and continue the fight for my own self and for everyone who needs me by their side.

________________________________________________

Links to the other “Use Your Words” posts:


Baking In A Tornado http://www.bakinginatornado.com/2017/02/use-your-words-sometimes-gyro.html

Spatulas on Parade http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com/

The Diary of an Alzheimer’s Caregiver http://www.thediaryofanalzheimerscaregiver.com/blog.html

On the Border http://dlt-lifeontheranch.blogspot.com/2017/02/i-do.html

Dinosaur Superhero Mommy http://dinoheromommy.com/

The Bergham Chronicles http://berghamchronicles.blogspot.com/2017/02/stable-layne-pt-5-feb-2017-useyourwords.html

Confessions of a part time working mom http://thethreegerbers.blogspot.com/2017/02/use-your-words-pork-belly.html

Not That Sarah Michelle http://notthatsarahmichelle.blogspot.com