i lost my job yesterday

December 10

Yesterday I lost my job. I’ve been at this school 3 years with great relationships with teachers, students, and parents. The principal raves about me. I turn in my paperwork on time and generally error-free (if there are errors, they are nothing major. The company has never complained about my paperwork). My evaluations have been glowing for the past two years. I participate in meetings and collaborate with coworkers in other schools. Yet, today I was told that the company was letting me go. They refuse to offer any explanation of their decision rubric or what factors came into play in their decisions.

They are retaining people who just walked onto the job in August. 

I have found one other coworker, Layla, who is being laid off. She believes, as I do, that we costs too much. I just applied for tuition reimbursement for the $1800 worth of CEU classes I just signed up for. I’m up for a $10,000 pay jump next year. Layla is at the top of the pay scale, and is being reimbursed for taxes that they calculated incorrectly in the past.

I cried profusely throughout the day yesterday. My biggest cause for crying was not a loss of paycheck, but the loss of the work environment. I love this school. I love people’s attitudes here. I love the conveniences that I have since I live out of my car. I am growing professionally every single day.

People tell me, “God must have something better,” and my response is, “But it doesn’t get any better than this!” (then we all laugh). I believe and trust in God’s leading. But as Liesl said, “When one door closes, another one opens, but it’s hell in the hallway.”

So, right now, financially, I’m in what Dave Ramsey calls crisis-mode.

I have to cancel my credit card auto-payments and extend student loan deferment. I can’t add to my long-term savings each month (however, I have an emergency savings fund). My spending has already been tightened as tight as I can make it.  I had to rent another storage unit to store teaching materials. Money from storage may have to come from the credit card payments. I need to go to the unemployment office and find out about that process.

My head hurts from crying on and off all day yesterday.

I won’t have a way to cook food other than using the park now. I won’t be able to use the school to access the Internet or work.


I’m not worrying – I’m praying.  Whatever happens next is more of the adventure of living.