Social Work Doesn't Have a Timeclock

Truth be known, I never wanted to be in the social work field...(shh, don't tell my boss). 

When I started my college journey, I started out wanting to be a journalist. I had a brief job opportunity at my local newspaper, researching, writing, editing, investigating, and interviewing. It was amazing. I loved it. After a couple classes, I quickly realized that there was not a high demand for the type of writings that I would like to be involved in.

I changed my major to education. That was my mothers wishes for my career. I worked as a substitute teacher the first two years of college on Tuesdays and Thursdays to help supplement college costs. I enjoyed teaching high school students. They knew the fundamentals (for the most part), they had their individual personalities, sarcasm was keen, and I liked encouraging the oddities that made them unique. 

I remember being in an education class having to draw a pig to express our personality. "What the crap is this," is what I thought. "How is this going to help me teach a group of high school students?" I dropped the class that day and changed to Elementary Education, until I still couldn't get past that assignment and dropped the class a second time and changed my major for the fourth time to Sociology.

Now when I began this specific journey, I liked the more breaking, the areas that society felt were taboo. How each culture, ethnic group, and economic sector worked separately and together.

I had it! The most brilliant idea ever! I would be a social researcher. This was the plan for the duration of my undergraduate time....until I graduated, realized that I am more a family person than someone who would branch off and live a life of solitude. I knew that there was no demand for a social research in or around the area I lived, so I had to chose a field that my major was qualified for. 

Enter Social Work. 

I have been working in the field of social work for nine years now. I have worked with the elderly and disabled, as a provider agency for foster children, and now at the Department of Children's Services. 

I love it. With the understanding that every job has it's bad days, drama, and moments of burn out. It's an emotionally unrewarding job for the most part. You find that glimmer of satisfaction when good prevails. You take the negative comments and cursings in stride and continue to try to find the positive in every situation. You take each person, each family, each child to heart. It does not stop at the end of the day, at the close of a case, at the end of the job. 

There are some families that I will forever hold dear. 

As a social worker, you put your all into each family and child. As a painter puts some of their-self into their painting, as a writer puts some of their-self into their writing, a social worker leaves some of their-self in the lives of the families they work with and visa-verse.

To in a sense hold their-selves accountable for the success of the families, the future direction of the children. To always in the backs of their mind wonder how each family is now, a year, five years, ten years down the line. 

I definitely am that person who does. I become excited when I hear from families that I worked with that are successful now. I become saddened when their lives falter. 

As a social worker, there is no timeclock. It is a life choice. A heart choice. It is my choice... and I wouldn't trade the experiences I have had for any other occupation.