A Great Sense of Accomplishment

Note: This occurred a couple weeks ago, but I am just now getting around to posting about it.

Last December I finally graduated with my Bachelor's degree, and commenced the journey of searching for a job worthy of a college graduate. Unfortunately, receiving a teaching degree in a subject that already has a shortage of jobs combined with living in a college town has resulted in a somewhat frustrating experience when it comes to wages and even finding a job at all. Since the college students make up for almost half of the total population of the town, there are plenty of people willing to work for horrible pay because some money is better than no money, and companies can pay minimum wage because there's a surplus of people needing a job. Related to this idea is the fact that many companies have a huge potential employees pool, so they don't want to hire people over-qualified for the job because that means they will have to be paid more. So, when you combine this setting with the "lower" cost of living compared to other states (which is so not true...my cost of living was less in CA than in ID), for the past 10 months or so, I have gotten paid equal or less the hourly wage I received when I was 18 years old working at a Hallmark shop.

Needless to say, since graduating college I have been filled with feelings of bitterness, negativity, and low self worth. I also wondered what the point of college was if it wasn't reflected in the amount of money I made. Also, it didn't look good on my resume that I graduate from college and then have these jobs that anyone can do.

After working in Special Education, I learned about IBI workers. Apparently, IBI workers could work in schools (getting paid close to a teacher's salary) or in Developmental Disabilities Agencies. However, my co-workers informed me that you have to have a set number of hours working with children with disabilities, have a Bachelor's degree in a select field, pay money to take an IBI class, pass a test (that very, very, few people pass on their first try), then do a student project to become IBI certified. The whole idea of getting paid twice as much as I was currently getting paid sounded intriguing, but didn't pursue anything due to the cost of the class, and the fact that I was pregnant and probably wouldn't finish the certification before the baby came.

Thanks to encouragement and support from my parents, we decided that it was worth the investment to go through the IBI class, even if I only work as an IBI therapist for a little bit. I ended up taking the class in August and then the test at the beginning of September. I knew that I basically only had one shot at taking the test (I only know one person who passed the test on their first try). With the baby due in Novemeber, if I took the test in September (it takes a month to get my results back.), with then roughly a month to finish my student project (which must be completed in 5 months). Well, I took the test, and it was the hardest test I have ever taken in my life. I have never studied harder for a test in my life either! Combine that with the faith and prayers of my family and it was one crazy month of waiting for my test score.

Well, I finally received my results, and I passed on my first try! The pass rate is an 80% and I received an 85%. I know for a fact that there's no way that I did it all on my own. There's no way I could have. I received some help from above. I made the goal to pass the test on my first try, and it's such a cool sense of achievement knowing that I accomplished my goal. Also, the increase in pay is the coolest thing. It's not like we'll have a bunch of extra money lying around ,but I definitely feel like I am now being paid closer to what I'm worth. It's fun to go to work, and totally worth the pay now. This experience has really taught me that if you set your mind to do something, and work as hard as you can, you can accomplish your goals. I still have my student project to take care of, but that's ok. I think I can do it. :)