Success and Relativity
How successful is the author of this blog? Well, it all depends on who you compare me to. My wife and I live modestly by some standards. We have 2 vehicles, a minivan and a Jeep. We rent a 4 bedroom house in the gorgeous High Desert of California with Satellite and high speed wireless internet. That alone is the Baliey’s to my way of thinking. I’m a public school teacher and have been blessed with 3 amazing kids aged 2 months, 2 1/2, and 9 years. Oh yeah, And I’ve been writing this blog for cool readers for about 200 days. Would you call that a success yet? Maybe not. It all depends. Everything is relative.
My wife and I have grand plans to see better days financially in the years to come. Like the typical suburban couple, We aren’t 100% satisfied until we have more. Still, we know how to be thankful in all circumstances. Somebody has aways got it worse (and better!).
In 1997 at 27 I made about 18,000 dollars a year. I was finishing my Master’s in Language and already had a hefty student loan debt hanging over my head. I worked in a coffee house and subbed elementary school part time. I was single and as lonely as it gets! I could barely make my bills every month. As I recall I had about $1500 dollars each month to live on and my rent alone was $1000. TOUGH DAYS. It was that year that I was offered a job as a teacher on an “emergency credential” in a local school district in Orange County. The pay was 29k. Of course, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. 29K? You mean . . . no more payday loans to pay my car insurance???
Fast forward to 2002 at age 32 with a teaching credential under my belt (and more debt). I had been teaching since 1997 and had a lot of experience. I accepted an exciting job in a small desert town called Victorville (The place I often brag about here). I was like one of the 3 little pigs leaving my home of Orange County to seek my fortune. I met my wife, we started our family and now we live the life of the first paragraph!
When it gets tough, and we are at the end of our paycheck, I remember those days when I would live my bachelor life off $1 whoppers, generic mac and cheese, and bolied potatoes. I’d drink coffee all night to cram for lit exams, and call my parents quite frequently when I needed help (sorry to say, but it’s true!) People I know make 200-300k a year in real estate, one friend made millions off writing one song, and some fellow teachers have moved up into Principal positions making a lot more than me. My wife and I have found that on my teacher’s salary of 9 years seniority (over twice as much as what I started at), I still cannot qualify for a local home loan. It apparently will require 2 teacher incomes which we one day hope to have in our house when the kids are older and her college is through. Nonetheless, success is just a matter of who you compare yourself to. To a high roller, I live quite modestly, but to somebody starting out in life as I was at 27, I’m a damn-prime-time Oprah interview candidate I tell you!
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Tags: Family, High-Desert, relationships
I’d say you are successful, Damien. It’s interesting when you get to the other side of the child raising years. I spent all my life acquiring things, and now would really like to have less stuff (or be more selective lol). Years ago, a friend from Asia visited my three bedroom home (which was feeling cramped with two teenagers in the house). She said, “So much room for just four people?” Made me stop and think just how lucky I was.
Yes. Compared to Asian countries were are very roomy! Thanks for your awesome comments today ;)
We only fail when we think we have! If you have family and a roof over your heads and you are able to feel and breathe, you have succeeded — and you have so much more than that, materially and emotionally —
And your blog is AWESOME with the variable size — it is HUGE on my new screen! I think they should all be variable — although I have to turn my head to read across the line — ahh, success!
Man, I thought that RSS button was big before!
That’s why I always prefer “fluid” themes as opposed to “fixed.” I’m sure your mac screen is larger than mine, but mine is larger than average as well. Thanks for those nice words.
I just read your guest post at Jessica The Rock Chick’s blog, and it touched me. Of course, I’d just finished writing my own guest post for her, which she tells me she’ll be posting in a few hours, so I was already feeling nostalgic. I had to come take a peek at the person who wrote it.
I’ve been to Victorville, but not in years. Great town.
I had more to say, but it went out of my head.
So, nice to ‘meet’ you, and have a great weekend.
I do wish we’d pay our teachers better, but, offhand, I’d saying you’re successful.
Thanks for the sentiments! Teachers will never be paid well, it’s a society thing going back to Plato. It’s a profession that should be somewhat internally rewarded. BUT you should have medical and a DECENT wage I think. That’s why there are teacher’s unions. Anyway, I appreciate the comments.
And what fun it is! If I can convince my wife it’s fun maybe WordCamp is in our future next year ;)