The Creative Lady Has Job Burnout | Living Your Dreams

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/burnout_signs_symptoms.htm

My Entry for Oprah's "Creative Mind Challenge" Essay
http://www.oprah.com/sweeps/sweeps_gallery.html?sweeps_id=1261&response_i...

I am making steps towards living my dreams!
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Last night, I feel asleep before the 11 PM BET airing of Wendy Williams! I was exhausted!

I woke up this morning thinking it was time for work but it was 3 AM! I could not go back to sleep and I just laid there thinking about how much I did not want to go to work.

At 5 AM, I text my principal and told him that I was suffering from professional and personal burnout. No matter what I do, I am always on call for help from family, friends, co-workers and more. My mom and aunt both managed to delete all the photos on their memory cards! Mind you, neither of them bothered to heed my advice to at least go to Walgreens or Walmart to print the photos they wanted. Instead, they kept the safely locked in their cameras and were deleted when they pushed the "delete all buttons" respectively!

My mom said that she felt so bad that she felt like she had lost a member of the family when she lost her photos! Oh boy, the pressure was on! My aunt was a new grandmother who lost hundreds of pictures of the twins who are now walking!

I traveled home for my Great Uncle's funeral and was able to recapture their photos! Hallelujah! I will post a video all about THAT process soon.

My Dad has joined the Civil Air Patrol and has been having issues with some of the computer programs. He can fly planes but reached a snag with downloading Microsoft Word & Excel documents to edit. He drove up for me to give him face to face lessons !

At work, I am constantly on call to help parents, teachers, students, administrators and vendors who need some problem solved. I am absolutely burned out!

I no longer find joy in being in the pressure cooker. I do get to be very creative but it's not for me. I want more time to focus on the projects that I want to work on.

I have tons of books that I am just waiting to "find the time" to read.

Job Burnout. How dare I suffer from this during an economic downturn?! People are out of work, losing their homes and I have the nerve to suffer from Job Burnout? Yes, I am!

Being sequestered really shed some light on my life. It is time to do something different. During one of Oprah's Lifeclasses, she mentioned that "If you want something different, you've got to do something you've never done"! I had Aha Bing Bing moments!

I've suffered from Burnout before. It was after completing my undergraduate degree from Alcorn State University in English/Mass Communications. The first Bush was in office and the country was in a recession. I was bummed because I did not have a job lined up after graduation. I did not take an internship because I wanted to finish my degree in 4 years. When I applied for jobs, they wanted experience. I had experience but only in libraries. My course of study was different.

One day, I was in my room and my raggedy TV popped on and Les Brown was part of the PBS Telethon. He was talking directly to me about Living Your Dreams.

My old TV reminds me of the one Fred Sanford bought "hot" and it belonged to Grady!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU6ZXuknXNI
I got up and decided that I was going to apply to library school.

I only a few days to prepare for the GRE. Based on those scores, I was admitted to USM on a Conditional Status. Conditional on my ability to find funding and my grades during the first semester.

Within 3 weeks and just under the buzzer, I was blessed with 2 scholarships that would be more than enough to fund my Master's degree. To this day, I have NEVER had a student loan and don't have that financial burden looming over my head.

I have been working in my field of study for over 20 years.

I am once again at a turning point in my life.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Les Brown
• librarian
• public education
• Live Your Dreams
• USM
• library school
• job burnout
• Library
• School
• Book
• Reading

[NappyNFree]

I appreciate your story and can understand where you are coming from. I was a teacher and school librarian. It is tough. Currently I work for the public library and I like that a little better. I am in school hoping to get a masters in reading. I am not sure where that will take me, but we will see!

[thecreativelady]

@NappyNFree I'm appreciative of your comments and ability to relate. I have worked in the public library and really enjoyed helping willing participants find what they are searching for. My concern is how strapped some cities/counties are and they always cut public library funding which equates to staffing. I am going to continue to be prayerful and aware and ready for my next opportunity. Best wishes on your masters in reading.

[Haitian1130]

I know what you mean about job burnout. It's very real for me too.

[thecreativelady]

@Haitian1130 I could use a year off and work on ME!

[bahianut]

I feel you but you know I have been your biggest fan as far as the arts go...I think that is what you need to pursue. Your next venture should be into that area check with ur local tv stations see if you can do an internship yes thats right intership if you are good they may hire you from that its usually 1 day a week. I think you would be great at that...

[thecreativelady]

@bahianut I appreciate your words and continued support. I am not sure what my next steps will be but I think I've outgrown working for someone else. I need my own hours and flexibility. Don't get me wrong, I find myself working on my own projects 15 hours a day but I no longer enjoy a "structured work environment". I will keep you all posted about my adventures! Thanks again!

[thecreativelady]

@avaloncar18 Thank you! That is exactly how I'm approaching it.

[avaloncar18]

Good luck girl, one day at a time

[thecreativelady]

@bossgal3 LOL. Girl, I guess it's the season of burnout! Judging from the comments and responses I've received, many more people are feeling the same way.

[thecreativelady]

@bossgal3 Thanks. I look forward to it!