Recently, I quit my job.
Well, actually It was back in August. At the time I told myself it was because I was going to school full-time and couldn’t work full-time AND go to school. This was true. This was also not the whole story.
Being a veteran, I have had the amazing opportunity to use the GI bill. Currently, they will pay a living alotment and pay the tuition. It’s a great deal. I can actually go to school full-time, and if I manage my money tightly (very tightly), not have to work. This is what I’ve been doing.
Unemployment in California is 12%. Some people think I was completely crazy for quitting my job in the face of that. I recently realized what made me send my boss a letter that fateful day back in August. I felt guilty. I felt guilty for having a job which I didn’t like, didn’t need, while there were lots of people who desperately needed work. One guy I worked with did the job just because “he was bored”, his wife made over $250,000 a year. That disgusted me. I could only see that as a selfish greed. An arrogant, “I’m going to do whatever I want” attitude. Those of you that know me might be laughing, because that was certainly my attitude in the Navy (sorry!!!), but I’ve come to realize that we have a responsibility as Americans. A responsibility to pay debt (D’oh!), to help others, and to not be greedy.
I realized that it was my responsibility as a citizen of the United States of America, to do everything I could, to sacrifice what I could to help others. No one forced me to do it, no one asked me to do it. Hell, at the time, I don’t even think I realized why I was doing it. I did it because I didn’t need it. This was my sacrifice, opening up a decent-paying job for someone who would respect it and use it, someone who needed it. I’m sure there were plenty of those people around. Heck, mabye the guy that they hired as a temp got to be full-time, he certainly needed it. And I didn’t. I’m not trying to blow my own horn, as I said -I didn’t realize this at the time, but we all need to make sacrifices, and maybe I can sleep easier knowing that though I am a poor student, barely getting by (actually moving to Dallas, Tx because its much cheaper to live) maybe, just maybe, there is someone coming home from work every day, doing the job that I did, putting food on the table for his children.
Maybe.