The Cost of Caring

I have a love/hate relationship going on with my job right now. Not because the sheen is wearing off - it ISN'T!

But because it just hurts sometimes.

I love:

• Supporting change in children who have lost hope that anything can change.
• Going on outings and adventures.
• Participating in cultural experiences I couldn't ever hope for outside of work.
• Learning new skills from kids who are amazed to discover they have something to offer me.
• Working with a team of people who communicate and support each other.
• Being in a profession that makes a positive impact on my world.
• Watching kids graduate the program with a whole new future ahead of them.
• Seeing children society has given up on rise above their past to become contributing members of their community.

I hate:

• Knowing the reason most of the kids are in the program I work in.
• Talking to the parents who have hurt their children so much they resort to unsafe behaviors to cope.
• Listening to a child who thinks the only way to be good is to be hit.
• Putting children into holds for the safety of themselves and others.
• Knowing that, for some of these children, the only people who care about them are people who are paid to.
• Wanting to take a sobbing teenager into my arms and say "you aren't alone" and not having that freedom.
• Being unable to tell my clients - with words - about the True source of Hope for their broken lives.

I love my job but I hate seeing first-hand some of the worst a fallen world has to offer.

I love my job... but I hate that my job is necessary.