SALARY
"People say it's not a lot of money, but compared to what I can make with my current skill set in other fields, it's double what I would be able to make as a tutor, or something else—like an adult language instructor—and it increases each year. I would have to completely retool and with my skill set, this is the most money I can make (…) And knowing that I have a mortgage. (…) Reminding myself of those external needs is actually important as a factor that keeps me going.”
“SEEING THAT OTHER TEACHERS ARE EXPERIENCING SIMILAR STRUGGLES”
"Talking to other teacher friends outside of my work environment is something that helps—and seeing that other teachers are experiencing similar struggles, or sometimes even worse struggles (…) At least two of the people in my group of four are considering quitting (….) One of my friends just got a better placement this year and is happier, but at her last school she was very, very close to stopping teaching entirely because of the way that school was being run, and just out of luck ended up in a school that's more supportive.”
“I'm the only income earner out of the two of us. My spouse is building the house. I'm earning the money. And the retirement plan is good, too. I don't know—the longer I'm in it, the more I'm like, Okay.”
“So I don't know—I think if you take away the things that I'm appreciative of now, you're just left with the fact that you need to support yourself. And the reality of that is when you're adulting, you do things that are hard sometimes.”