When politics goes from everything to just something.
Posted by Jessica in Work
For the past year, politics has been my life. Everything else has taken a backseat while I traveled our country to live my dream. Anytime I start feeling sad about my job, I just remember that I had an opportunity few have and there were many many happy times. For that, I am eternally grateful.
There were times when I thought that my life was just too great and maybe it was something God made happen to make up for the fact that I had this not so great childhood. I'll never forget those times and I have many people in my life now that only exist in my life because my job placed me in places where I could meet them (hi Paula and Michelle!).
But I wasn't smart. I let politics not only dominate my life but dominate it to a point where I didn't have much else there. So, this makes me wonder if maybe I'm not cut out for campaign work.
The dirty secret of campaign work is that a lot of the time you get treated like crap, paid like crap, and promised things that never materialize (promotions, pay increases, opportunities, skills). I worked for people during the last year which were pretty good to me but I started out organizing making $400/week. Thank goodness I had free housing, but I was working 80-100 hours a week! The interns in DC were making $2000/month....so annoying.
So the question then becomes, am I willing to put my life on hold to work in politics, not make very good money, not have very stable employment, work insane hours, and work with and under people who can be inept or totally lame?
