Happy Recession!

I decided about a year ago after going through yet another unrewarding year of doing my best and being scrutinized and devalued that I would no longer pursue a teaching career. Over the course of the last year, I was put into several positions of leadership and yet I was one of the first teachers my school decided to let go. I describe the whole event to friends by describing a situation where you want to break up with someone in a relationship but they beat you to the punch. There goes the 'we need black male teachers in our urban schools' theory. With the new school year approaching, I'm still happy about my decision not to put myself through anymore torture. However, I find myself wondering what's next for me.

Luckily as a teacher, you continue to get paid through the summer. Unfortunately, I assumed that you benefits continued through that summer as well. Luckily, I was able to cancel my dentist appointment after this discovery. Unfortunately, I had two doctors visits that I'll be paying for out of pocket. One of them was worth it because I received antibiotics for my developing pneumonia. I'm sure that the 5 minute doctor visit bill will come soon and that it will be something close to $500. The other doctors visit is very upsetting. I went to the doctor and the doctor looked at my finger and told me that I would need to get a very expensive MRI that he wasn't sure was covered by my insurance. That was the doctors visit! $200! That was the day I decided that I'm not going to the doctor anymore. That lessen the blow from the fact that I no longer have health insurance.

In my thoughts about new employment, I considered becoming a doctor. When I told my sister she was excited and told me that I could see my family and provide them with medical services for free. I quickly corrected her and let her know that I wouldn't be that type of doctor. I would be the doctor that you paid to tell you which doctor you need to go see. I figured that medical school would be a little faster. After all, I'm pretty good at figuring out what's wrong with people after they tell me what's wrong with them. So, you have bumps on your skin...hmm, I'm going to refer you to the dermatologist. If a patient comes to me with complaints about something physical, I'd try to convince them that they are just fine and then recommend them to a plastic surgeon. My fee would be that of the average doctor, $100/min (and you thought mechanics were bad).

They say that what goes up must come down. Unfortunately, what goes down doesn't necessarily come back up and shit rolls downhill.