Life can change at any moment, causing us to relocate, move away from our families, or leave a good job. Our partners at LearnVest share how one woman regrets giving up her career for her husband.
When I was growing up, my mother always told my sister and me to wait until we could stand on our own two feet before we got married.
"Get your education, start your career, and then worry about finding a husband," she’d say. "It’s important to always be able to support yourself. Marriages don’t come with lifetime warranties."
Some may think my mom’s advice was a bit pessimistic, but I think she was just being a good mom. Either way, both her daughters followed her guidance. At first.
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For a little while, I was the woman my mom always wished I would become: I was successful, I could pay my own bills every month, and I waited until I had finished graduate school before finding the guy I wanted to marry. I graduated in 2003 with a B.A. in English literature, and I landed my first job teaching high school English shortly after. While teaching full-time, I enrolled in a graduate program and managed to pay for my degree without having to take out any student loans. In the six years that I taught at my first teaching position, I emerged as a leader in my local union, and — at the time I resigned — I was chairperson of the English department.
