What do you want to be when you grow up?

For those of you following my employment history here in MT, I will now be referring to it as the every-changing, never close a door, or leave a rock unturned, experience. Shortly after we first got here you may recall me blogging about my daughter's teacher telling me that I should get on the substitute list. Well I did that, way back then. The other day they actually called. Would I be willing to sub.......in the kitchen?

How low must one sink to get a job? "School lunch lady" one of the least respected professions in the school system not to mention one of the worst paid. But hey, it got me in the school where my daughter was and I could see her at lunch and find out who she was hanging with in the lunch room. Nothing like the presence of a mom and my daughter likes having me in her school. So of course I said yes.

I donned my plastic gloves, plastic apron (which went from chest to ankles) and of course the mandatory hair net. Boy did I look cute! Breakfast was good. Dishes were done and it was time to serve lunch. That's when recognition set in. "hey, aren't you soandso's mom?" I replied "yes" very proudly several times before one of the other lunch ladies countered with she has her own name you know. One kid said and I repeat "cool soandso's mom is the lunch lady" I just about cracked up all I could think of was how can you think that this is cool. Hair net, rubber gloves, plastic apron, this is cool? Now I know why I wasn't one of the popular kids in school. I had the wrong idea of cool.

All I kept thinking was please aspire to be more than a school lunch lady. No offense to those school lunch ladies that may be reading this but again it is a job that gets little respect, no chance for advancement, and little pay. It just isn't a job to support a family on. When I was little I remember thinking I wanted to be a teacher, a nurse, a social worker, a dental hygentist. But never do I ever remember thinking "cool, I want to be a school lunch lady".

I will continue to substitute wherever I am needed. Heck, I might as well, I already went through the finger-printing process. And again I get to watch my daughter grow-up outside of her normal home environment. It's good to see how she is outside of home, who she hangs with, that she continues the teachings of home outside of home, but most importantly she likes to see me there. So when the phone rings asking me to sub in the kitchen or otherwise I will gladly step to the plate and serve it up. I think I'll keep my regular at-home job too. Who knows maybe when I grow up, after trying on all of these different occupations, I'll know what I want to be. Do you really know what you want to be?