I don't know how I might explain what has happened over the past year or so, but I will try to convey some thoughts.
This past year has been, I think, the most trying and confusing time that me and my family have been through. The last time I posted, I was a high school chemistry and astronomy teacher at our local school in Ashland, KY. It is a good school and has about 1000 students. Much bigger than any other school I have taught in. However, I did well and enjoyed it for the most part. As with any job, it had it's problems, but I had a great job and I knew it, although it was a ton of work. I also taught AP Chemistry. That is a very rigorous curriculum; I fell asleep most nights of the week while studying chem, making notes, working out problems, making sure I understood concepts, and planning chem labs. It was exhausting. I love chemistry, but it was very taxing.
So, when someone told me that the prison across the river (in Ohio, about 20 minutes away) was hiring and paying about $10,000 more dollars a year, I was interested. I was even more interested when I learned that I could not take any "homework" or school materials INTO the prison, and I also was never allowed to take any work OUT of the prison. That only meant one thing: my evenings would be free. There was no overtime, and I worked about 40 or so hours a week. I thought, "It doesn't matter what goes on during the day, I can deal with it if I know I have no work to do at home!" How wrong I was.
I don't want to publish for all electronic eternity some of the things that I saw, know, heard, and experienced, but the short of it is that I found out what I can deal with in life and what I can't. I have always been the type of person that never wanted to find something that I just could not do. Now, there are plenty of things that I am not physically able to do. And certianly there are things that I do not have the talent for. But I mean, if there is something that I can do, but it is just hard, then I will do it if I have to. In the prison, I think I found my limit. I stayed there for 5 months and decided to quit. That was another thing that was so difficult: quitting. I have never quit a job without somewhere else to go. But I did this time. My family was suffering tremendously because I was so stressed and upset and could not seem to come to terms with going back every day. There were plenty of nights of fitful sleep, and sleeplessness, because I so deeply dreaded going back there each morning.
When I hired into that place, people told me that no one on the outside will believe you or understand you when you try to tell them about this place. They were so right. Unless I sat with someone face to face, I don't think there is anyway to convey the kind of misery that surrounds that place. Most of the prison workers simply say, "I work in hell".
So, I quit. I wasn't sure what to do then. I applied for many, many jobs and didn't get any. I enrolled in an EMT class; something I always wanted to do. I also applied to join the Louisville, KY, fire department. That was a great thing because it kept me motivated to run and work out and lose weight. I lost 40 pounds during the spring and early summer. I passed my civil service written test in February, and then passed my PAT (physical agility test) in April. It was maybe the hardest physical test I have ever taken. I was told a few times that the Louisville PAT is one of the hardest of all the fire departments in the country. I know firefighters that have done the firefighter challenge and they say that is a walk in the park compared to Louisville.
I will have to catch up on more details later. Time to go for a ride and out to dinner with the fam.
-Crazy-A
