I need to teach at the community college to support myself. I have the good sense to know to be grateful I can work. I lost a better paying college teaching job in 2011 due to PTSD and the onset of Chronic Kidney Disease that took me off all of my meds. So being able to work without any meds, I enjoy what I do mostly.

It's just that I'm asked to teach twice as many courses at this level as I did when I was a privileged private 4 year college professor in 2011. Ironic how the sick get burdened, huh? I have sent out dozens of applications for jobs like the one I had back in 2011 to return to teaching a lighter load.

But there's a caste system in the education business, and once you are at the community college level, you don't move back up. It's a blessing community college teaching was there for me when I had no other shot at a job in 2011. But it's hard to do this job over the long haul with my bad health, and I'm entering my 4th year of doing it this Fall 2014.

I try not to think about the job I had in 2011 too much, but those days come to mind nonetheless. I taught 3 courses a semester back then. I taught 7 courses this one past Spring semester, 4 of them different class preps!!!!

I'm proud to say I never missed a day of work all Spring semester, even juggling teaching 7 classes. But as August 1st approaches, I enter the month in which the Fall 2014 semester begins. I've been anxious about it. With only 40% of my kidney function left, I only have 40% of the oxygen in my blood I used to have, and put simply, oxygen is energy.

As the countdown begins, it triggers my PTSD to get anxious about the school year beginning on August 18th and, of course, with kidney disease I can't take any tranquilizers to calm me down. Catch-22.

The countdown is on, so your support, as always, is appreciated.