Titles

If you have an impressive title following your name does it make you any more important than anyone else? I don’t believe it does.

Obviously some titles generate more income than others. For instance, a small town doctor is not going to earn as much as a big city doctor who adds a specialty. Those extra titles mean a lot financially, but in many cases the cost of obtaining it will never be repaid. There are a lot of unemployed college educated people out there today in the same boat as those who don’t have school loans to pay off.

Sometimes titles are funny. I recently spent time on the phone trying to find out why my internet service was cutting out. I finally gave up and told the person I was attempting to communicate with to send a repairman a.s.a.p. I was told that a “technician” would be sent. I was told the same thing when I had a furnace problem. Apparently there are no more repairmen. Trash collectors once picked up my garbage now they are called sanitary engineers.

This started me thinking about the jobs I have held during my life and their titles, most of which had no pay attached. My first job while still in high school was a sales clerk at a local dime store, followed by a file clerk for the Teamsters health & welfare department.
Then the biggie came along; I was a wife and mother for 40 years, now referred to as a domestic engineer (long hours definitely no pay involved). During this time I held jobs as a Cub Scout Den Mother and a Mother Advisor for International Order of Rainbow for Girls and a Costumer for a theater group (no pay, but interesting activities).

Other job titles that did involve some pay, but not a lot were: Independent Avon Representative, Independent Contractor for 2 marketing companies, Resource Development Coordinator for a nursing home, Columnist. Just look at all those titles! I am worn out just thinking about them.

My current job title is Free Lance Writer and I am about to step back in to the title of Independent Contractor. Both of these jobs allow me many hours of freedom to spend as much time as I please doing whatever makes me happy.

The variety of titles I have held probably don’t mean much to most people and granted it would be too much to put on my grave marker, but they describe who I was and who I am. Titles don’t make me any better or any worse than anyone else I know.