TLDR: NK has told me told me MB talks negatively about my significant other. Do I say something?
need some advice from this Reddit to figure out if I’m overreacting. I’m in my mid-20s and have been with my NF for 3 years. In the beginning, I thought NF was my unicorn family. At a certain point I realized I may be being taken advantage of and so I set some mental boundaries (not doing extra things I’m not being paid for, not staying past my time). Things have shifted over the past couple months since then.
Time for the problem! I began dating someone around 1.5 years ago. As often happens with this job, personal and professional overlapped and the SO was brought around to events and things on occasion. One day last year, one of the NKs told me, “MB said things about you and (SO) but we can’t tell you”. It caught me so off guard, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t acknowledge the comment with NK and just carried on with what we were doing. Then it happened several times a couple weeks later but “MB told us not to tell you”. I have bills to pay - I didn’t want to up and quit when it first started or risk being fired by saying those this was not okay. I was already scheduled to leave this summer for the youngest NK entering school. (Nannies aren’t super common in my area, half the time I’m still referred to as a “babysitter”, but that’s a different topic for another ragey post.)
The comments stopped and so I assumed everything was okay, or maybe the NPs were at least not talking about it in front of the kids anymore. This weekend NPs invited us out to dinner to celebrate a recent accomplishment of mine. Assuming it was just a kind gesture, I agreed. Monday morning rolls around and out of the blue NK asks me who paid for the dinner. I kept my cool, and asked him why he would ask that. He says that MB was talking in the car about who paid for dinner. They spoke to the staff when we all got there to make sure they got the ticket (unbeknownst to my SO). I guess my SO was supposed to get up and start a fight over who would pay the bill?
I’ve only got two months left with NF. Do I just ride it out, keep my mouth shut and not say anything? I don’t even know what I would say while still maintaining a level of professionalism.

To give some background on me, I have 60k in savings which was meant for a down payment on a house. I make 75k at my job currently and I’m also in nursing school which would finish fall 2025.
My live with my family at the moment which is a special form of hell of earth. Since childhood my mom had substance abuse issues and now my older sister does as well and after 6 years of having no issues, their behaviors have come back worse than I remember them being. After 8 months of naively hoping this would magically stop, I’ve realized this is not a good place for me to be in.
My plan was always to move after when I finish school because things have not been this bad. But now I don’t see how I could possibly last until next fall.
Anyway, I guess my question is - would it be a really bad move to take 10K of my savings to help bring down rent? I live in an area where studios are 2000-2200 and 2400+ for 1br
Also, at the moment I don’t want to move far because my dad is here dealing with my mom and sister.
If I do the math without savings would leave me pay check to pay check basically and with my savings it would allow more wiggle room.
TLDR home life is shit, want to move out a year earlier then planned but need to use some savings to help me do so. Worth it? Not worth it?

Hello, I’m a bit at a loss of words right now and in search of advice. I (21 f) started seeing a psychiatrist that specializes in adhd and autism this past summer. Since then, I’ve talked at length with her about my struggles in daily life, daily tasks, relationships throughout my whole life, overstimulation, following social norms etc. At first I was pretty sure I didn’t have autism, adhd maybe but I was more inclined believing I just had depression (which was diagnosed a few years prior). However, throughout these various meetings with this psychiatrist, she explained to me how adhd and autism present in women, and pointed out all the traits I had for both diagnoses. She then diagnosed me with adhd, saying I have many autistic traits but is not sure about that diagnosis as I do not have the possibility to involve my parents in this process. In my country you need to go through a neuropsychology test in order to have a recognized diagnosis which would make me able to ask for adjustments in my studies or future jobs. Well, I went thru the whole process of the 4 hour long exam, which was with other specialists (so not my current psychiatrist). I have a report that says that as I have many traits of adhd (reduced attention span, difficulty staying focused on a same task without starting another task at the same time for example) and autism (poor eye contact, very sensitive to noise, rigid behavior for example) they do not diagnose any of the two. Why? Because they talked to my sister, which knows me rather well but is 1) probably neurodivergent too and 2) not inside my body and mind and she said she didn’t notice anything weird when I was younger. And because they saw my high school reports that say I was “a polite, nice, quiet and dedicated student” (which to me is infuriating bc I was suicidal throughout all of my high school years, struggled to attend classes which is WRITTEN ON THE REPORTS, had to repeat my last year, attend many support classes etc). How do they base their diagnoses of off a QI test, a few school reports and my sister’s idea of me rather than my personal experience and the opinion of a professional that specializes in this subject and that saw me many hours, talked to me at length, did research with me etc etc?? Why didn’t they ask me about my experience in the school system and in my daily routine? How can anyone else know how I feel except for myself?? Also, if I do not have autism it’s ok! It’s just that it’s frustrating bc things don’t add up, and for adhd, I am pretty sure I have it and my psychiatrist agrees. Also I’ve been searching for answers for a good while now and this exam doesn’t give me any to go forward. I guess as long as my psychiatrist diagnoses me it’s ok, but I’ll always have this feeling that maybe it’s not true and I’m only exaggerating bc that’s what this exam said about me (it literally stated that I was exaggerating my symptoms bc what my sister said about me wasn’t the same as what I was saying in the exam).
So yeah. I don’t really know what to do now. I mean, there is nothing to do. But I’m a bit lost and I’m not sure I can say I think I’m autistic then, bc what if I’m not? Same with adhd even though I’m a bit more confident in that diagnosis. It just leaves me in this grey area and I hate not being sure.

Today, I finally put on my altered dress for my (23f) best friend's (24f) engagement party. Although I look beautiful in it and I am feeling myself, I keep having flashbacks and flashfowards of what can go bad.
We met on facebook when we were both in high school and clicked, despite having bad opinions about each other. We had plenty of common things to talk about, and I honestly admired her for how intelligent and well spoken she is. Although, she always was the kind that had her mind set on an ideal when it came to relationships that resulted in a very toxic dynamic between her and her partner. When her partner didn't satisfy her, she would go cold and never said what was wrong. Instead, she was venting to me. That made our friendship toxic. She would constantly cheat emotionally on her partner with me. Things escalated quickly, and we actually caught feelings for each other. I started to be her actual lover, and I felt guilty about it. At some point, we were in a relationship, too. It was a short and bad one that put our friendship on a pause.
4 years later, I decided to reconnect with her because I thought that I wasn't going to waste a good friendship in a bad relationship, and it was a very good decision. We were both healthier, and now we had a better dynamic, too. I talked to her about my boyfriend ( 25m) and our love story. Long story short, he is my soulmate. I am convinced about that. No relationship compares to this one. I told her about how fast we had to move on because of our circumstances and how nice it is to live with him, and she understood. She is happy with our relationship and wishes us the best. Not so much later, she met her current fiancé (25m). He was quite intimidated by me, he told that to my face but we clicked well. That's until we found out that he is quite dodgy. He is a womanizer who decided to "settle" and fell for her quickly. He also is the kind to search for the most dodgy jobs just to make a bit more cash, that he spends quickly on god knows what. He saw everything. Drugs, prostitution, robberies, death, etc. Not only that, but he is cocky about never being caught, too. I thought they were an odd pairing since she is the independent, level-headed but introverted big sister that took no shit from anyone, but whatever. We didn't want to judge. They moved on quickly with their relationship, even quicker than me, and my boyfriend did. They got engaged in 8 months, and three months later, she is pregnant, too. Their engagement lasted only 6 months, and next month, they are getting married. Because a wedding is quite expensive for them right now, they decided to skip the church wedding and only do the official documents and do an engagement dinner party with their close family and friends. Oh boy, the organization is a mess.
First, they asked us to be their godparents but quickly changed their minds after their parents realized that me and my boyfriend are not married, which is a big problem with the church but not with the documents. I wanted to point that out to them since they are not going to be wedded in church but whatever. Ever since we were in high school, she promised me that I would be her godmother to her wedding. It was disappointing, but I knew that I needed to be flexible. Second, she wants her guests to dress more elegantly for the event. Her fiancé and my BF got a bit fussy that they couldn't wear jeans and Hawaiian shirts, but we quickly changed their minds. But this transitioned to the third problem. I had to get my dress pretty early into the engagement so we could save some money. I got a nice dress for my budget: a midi mint dress with puffy veil sleeves and crochet flowers motifs that enhanced my bosom. I checked with her if the color and the model were ok, and she said that she was happy with it... Until she got her dress. She decided to dress in a way more layed back style and get a white cotton beach dress. It's incredibly simple, and my boyfriend described it to be a sack of potatoes in comparation to what I was wearing. Not only that, but it was 5 times more expensive than mine. This was a problem. I didn't want to overdress or upstage the bride to be, so I got another dress that's more laid back, the one that I am currently wearing so my mom could alter her a bit. Fourth, they keep changing the dates, and that got everyone annoyed because it messed with the free work days. Fortunately, this was resolved, and now they have a date that's set in stone. The organization is quite messy, too. BF had the condition that he didn't want to drive in the city, so he would drink, something that can't happen because they have many guests and not enough cars. We live far away from them, in a suburban area. There is a 5 hour drive between us and besides them, we don't know anyone in their city. They offered us a free room ( baby's future room) but even that is uncertain. Fifth, they are not the most stable couple. Her fiancé gets mad and jealous quite easily. He used to fight with her when she wears more make-up than usual or she was too indiferent to his flirting. She is the kind of woman who never wears her emotions, and that drives him nuts. She did open up slowly to him, but it's too slow for his pace. Not only this, but he has a high-sexual drive while her's is low. He gets very fussy when they don't get to have regular sex. When she got pregnant, the gyno told her to stop sexual relations for a while, so the baby stays in place. He said that he can't stop having sex for his own health, and it is quite unfair. She hit him with an ultimatum that if he made her abort it, she would never have kids with him again. That made him settle, at least for a while. He is also the kind that wants a boy, so he could continue his "legacy." If that didn't make it clear for what kind of person he is, then I don't know what more can I tell you. Also, the both of them hinted that me and boyfriend should get pregnant too, so our children could be best friends just like us. We quickly shut it down with "With what money?Plus, we are not mentally prepared for it". Which brings us to the sixth problem, and I and BF are not in a stable money situation like they are. BF used to be overworked and paid badly while I couldn't work right now. He did get to change his job for a better one, which is a huge relief. I wanted to work, I wished to, but bestie and her fiancé keep wanting to have vacations with us twice a year. No workplace would be able to give me that many holidays, which I know is unfair. That's the country we live in. Because of this, for the last year, we were on a tight budget that couldn't allow any more changes.
Besides these problems, there are many more things like family drama and other money problems. Because of the constant change, me and boyfriend are stressed and this got us in an argument. First being about my dress and then about the couple that couldn't understand our money problems. Me and bf resolved it, but he has some good points. The organization is as messy as their future marriage.
I apologize if I've made grammar mistakes, english is not my first language.

Hi there,
I'm an Australian Bachelor of Education student and I'm about halfway through my four year degree. I study online and would continue this abroad. I'm very interested in taking advantage of your countries offer to allow me to work and live for up to 24 months. I currently work as a teacher's aide here in Melbourne and since I love working in education, I would like to continue that if I was to live in Canada. I know, all Aussies are in Banff on the ski lifts but I want to continue on my career path if possible.
So to get to my question, is it possible for those who aren't citizens and without a completed degree, to work in your elementary schools? Also, if I was able to work in Canada in a school, what's the process like and are there any jobs? I find it quite confusing looking through your job bank site. Only four jobs in Toronto area in this role pop up on that site which isn't very encouraging.
Thanks in advance

Posted on his Facebook page that he is moving to a Communications job at SSU. Thanks for everything Dustin!
On Sept. 11, 2001, a series of terrorist attacks set me on a path to do three things: to correct misinformation as a life goal, to enter a field that in some way improves people’s understanding of their world, and to earn bipartisan respect in how I do it.
I’ve written an untold number of stories across 23 years and been taken to places new and old, familiar and fresh. I've interviewed rock legends, presidential candidates (well... one), and along the way met unforgettable sources ranging from a baby battling neuroblastoma to an elderly Lawrence woman growing a potato in her apartment and naming it like a son.
Of course, this path has had its drawbacks. I was told early on that “being a reporter doesn’t pay well,” and that I was entering a “dead industry” fresh from its collapse in 2008. But, after my first time talking to a doggie daycare that made the Today Show and becoming friends with a cat, I realized the career also paid in memories... amply... and there’s really no place I’ve worked that has created more memories for me than Salem. It’s the beat I’ve worked the longest as a reporter; the most recent Halloween marked my 10th in the city.
It also marked my last.
On Oct. 24, seven days before Halloween, I turned 40. I did so without having yet saved any money for retirement, and while working at least 70 hours per week at two to three jobs for the last several years. The combined paychecks still put me a good bit below median household income for the area — something that comes to mind every time I see a comment online that talks about how people should try living where they can afford to.
There's also a dark side to journalism that has emerged in the last half-decade, one that I’d argue doesn’t get enough attention. It’s one of the few industries that is entirely private while also being fully public-facing — journalists are effectively public officials, without the protections and benefits of being public officials. We take a lot of shots from readers, some of whom would delight in us being out of the job and financially destroyed, and we just chuckle and move on with our day.
For the dark side, there’s also the light. In some parts of the real world, journalists are thanked for their service as if we’re active military. I’ve been compared to nurses working the pandemic, held up as a leader stabilizing a maligned society, and invited to share my perspective and experiences with high school classrooms, podcasts, even Boy Scout troops.
Being a reporter pays well in the memories you collect along the way (thankfully they aren't subject to a tax). To that end, I’ve at times felt wealthy for having the privilege of covering a city like Salem — even with its dark underbelly actively arguing that I shouldn’t have a job or be allowed to exist.
With this double-edged sword equipped for so long, I knew I’d put it down at some point. When thinking about the kind of job it would take to leave the news industry, I found there was really only one that kept coming up in my mind: an opening in Communications at my Alma Mater, UNH. That would honestly be a dream... a position like that opening at a college campus I knew so well. To my fortune, that exact position opened in my backyard toward the end of 2023, on a college campus I know just as well as UNH — if not better.
In early June, I’ll be switching careers as I assume the role of Associate Director of External Communications at Salem State University.
I loved my college experience and always joked that if I won the lottery, I'd go back to school and get a degree in physics, do something nutty with string theory. But really, there’s something about the college environment where I’m most comfortable: everybody is there to learn and grow, and, from each graduate, society receives an opportunity for transformation. The feeling you get walking through a space like that can't really be replicated anywhere else... At least that's the fuzzy feeling I get when walking onto a college campus.
It’s hard to imagine leaving the only world I’ve known professionally and no longer covering the city I love, but I’m not going that far. I’m still working in the same beautiful city and would love for you to say “hey” when you see me out doing whatever. You may also see my byline from time to time, and I think I'd even like to continue doing “the spreadsheet” each night polls are open.
But, for now, this bro is going off the record to go back to school.

So, I’m 21, working full time at minimum wage, am in a small but “growing” city, and live on my own.
My current employer is a local business, but I’d consider it far from small. I’ve been at this job for a couple of months and was hired with the promise of progressional raises as I learned how to do my tasks. My manager seems to reassure that I’ve exceeded several levels of training, but nothing else has come of it.
I will admit, so far during my employment I’ve had to call out on several occasions due to my medical conditions. My workplace seems perfectly okay with it, however it feels like maybe this is why I’m being held back. Am I overthinking here?
For the last few years I’ve had a rocky job history due to accepting positions at troubled workplaces. Most people I’ve spoken to about the circumstances of those jobs have agreed with their condition. The current job I am at was what I told myself would be the one stable job that I grew from to show others I could maintain employment.

 However, the expenses of rent, groceries, maintaining a vehicle, etc. are leaving me with very little to work with. Most paychecks, I find myself not even able to afford more than 10 packs of top ramen. 

As of lately, I’ve been contemplating finding a new job that would allow me to thrive financially. I tend to be a more frugal person, but my current situation just feels so… tight? Half of the people in my personal life agree that a better opportunity would be a good decision, while the other half thinks I’m unrealistic about how much I should make.
So, I ask you Reddit.. what do I do? I’ve spent hours crunching numbers and budgeting down to the last penny I have. If it helps, this seems to be a common issue with my employer as numerous people have recently resigned due to the same reason. I know that I am young and could invest into getting an education, but my current situation makes it hard to accommodate schooling.. yet alone the lack of job opportunities in my area.

For context, I (19) live in New Zealand, and the friend (18), who I will call T, lives in Texas. So obviously there is some distance between us.
We have been friends since late 2021 when we met in an insanely toxic and traumatising discord server and I have been sure that I was 100% there for him as he struggles a lot with mental health. And over the years as we got closer we somewhat developed romantic feelings for each other, even “fake dating” at one point. But I never thought it was that serious. Though I probably didn’t help in this case as I sometimes made gestures that could be seen as romantic such as making playlists and sending him handmade gifts. We both agreed and told each other that if it wasn’t for the distance we would be together.
Recently though, I have started uni and moved into uni halls, and with that I have started regularly hooking up with someone. And because me and T weren’t official or anything and I didn’t think it was a big deal, I somehow let it slip in a conversation. It’s not like I was really keeping it a secret from him at all. This really upset him though and this combined with some other things have caused friction in our friendship. And we are on sort of a break.
I do love him and don’t want to hurt him, but I also don’t want to put my life on hold for someone who is half the world away and is too mentally ill that he is in and out of mental hospitals and cannot complete school, let alone get a job so the chance of us ever meeting each other is slim to none. I don’t want to upset him too much because he might hurt himself and it feels like I am walking on eggshells.
Any advice or comments are greatly appreciated

So I may have two job offers coming in this week and I want to weigh the pros/cons with some fellow teachers to see what you think. For reference, I currently teach 6th grade (4th year teaching, always 6th or 7th grade), and I'm certified for 4-8 math. I also have 3 kids; 1 school age (elementary) and 2 Littles. I could stay where I'm at but I'm not happy with some of the things next year, like how we are addressing loss of funds, breaking my team up, our calendar, etc. I've also been getting up at 4:30 everyday to commute and my poor kids get up at 5:30 and we don't get home until almost 6 (I live about 45 mins from my campus and can't afford to live anywhere less than 25 mins away).
Option #1: Intermediate School Pros- 6th Grade, so familiar to me and I'm certified for it District offers low-cost daycare (I have 2 under school age) that would save me over $1200+/month School calendar includes Fall Break (rare for my area) Small classes and less overall students; teach 3 block periods per day with about 20 kids each Comparable school rating to where I currently work Same contract hours I have now Autonomy in the classroom
Cons- Would have to relocate to the area about 40 mins from our current house (lease is up in August anyway so not a major issue, but is farther from family) Would have to still drive about 25 min each way from where we could afford to move to Would move into a team of veteran teachers who have been together several years Lower salary than I currently make Lots of BTC concepts and stations in the classroom, which I'm unfamiliar with
Option #2: move up to High School Pros- I've worked at this district in the past, so I know "the game" and many people I would love to teach HS; not a state-tested subject (yay!) Comparable salary to what I currently make I've taught this group of kids several years ago when they were in JH (could also be a con, lol) Could relocate when my lease is up and be close to family and only about 10 mins from the school Lots of autonomy in the classroom and how I can grade things
Cons- Lower rating than current school No district daycare, kids would likely stay at their current facility Would have to study and get HS Math cert within the year or I won't have a job next year - very nerve wracking for me 6 classes with 25-30 kids each Earlier contract hours than I have now No Fall break
What would you do?

“We’re a meat family,” my dad would proudly tell strangers. He’d wait for the quizzical look, then launch into detail, starting with how many freezers we had, how long we could sustain ourselves on the contents. It was just his way of starting a conversation, which made sense when you considered that raising and home-killing animals for food was, for want of a better term, his life-long hobby. His prize possession was one of those industrial-sized vacuum sealers: you could put half a pig inside and wrap it in plastic so tightly that every wrinkle and skin fold waxed unreal with shiny detail.
If we hadn’t lived in a rural area, albeit semi-urbanised, I guess it would have been pretty weird. But the mostly farming-stock locals only found his extra enthusiasm a little bit odd.
When he wasn’t being a bit embarrassing talking about it, I never really paid much heed to his hobby. I had a child’s vaguely grateful awareness that though our family went through some lean financial times, our stomachs never suffered like some of the families around us. All the beef, pork, ham and bacon in those big old chest freezers passed down from his dad really could have fed us for years.
I should preface all this by saying that I wasn’t a particularly bright kid, though neither was I dumb. I didn’t fail badly at anything in school, I just never achieved beyond a pass. I didn’t know it yet back then, still quietly dreaming about being a ballet star or a dressage champion, but mediocrity was my destiny. And I think that’s why I got on so well with my Aunt Liz.
Liz was my dad’s live-in youngest sister. She was one of those women who get described as ‘bubbly’ — not really pretty, not really smart, not a lot going on besides just being… well, all Liz. But she was salt of the earth; kind, caring, and great with kids. She was the only person who would willingly mind my two older brothers, who fought like hellcats and caused more trouble than the whole last generation of my family combined. People would privately lament to my parents that it was a shame Liz didn’t have kids of her own, but dad would just shake his head and say Liz liked it that way – that all the fun of looking after kids is being able to give them back to their parents.
I guess she was like me; nice, but mediocre. Lovely, but somehow forgettable when she wasn’t doing something for you.
But when Liz left us, I couldn’t forget her.
In hindsight, it was pretty weird timing that we had a big fortieth birthday party for Liz right before she disappeared. She was radiant that night; she’d hired a local girl to do her hair and makeup, and it was honestly the first time I’d ever seen her look pretty. She’d even worn a push-up bra under a tight red dress, which flattered her very plump curves well enough that the neighbour’s farmhand was spotted disappearing into the woolshed with her for a snog. In my dawning awareness, that gave a plain girl hope: if Aunty Liz could get a guy at forty, maybe things would turn out okay for me.
Anyway, I couldn’t forget how her pink cheeks, her eyes, her whole self, glowed that night before Liz went to bed. She said it was the best birthday ever, and that she was very much looking forward to the next stage of her life.
Would I have done anything different, if I had known? If I had realised what, exactly, that next stage was?
The week after the party, Aunt Liz said she was going on a little holiday up north, to visit some old school friends. She packed her things – she didn’t honestly have that many – and drove her little orange mini out onto the main road. And with a wave of one fleshy hand, she was gone. Nobody really thought much of it when she didn’t call, because nobody rural had cellphones back then. And Liz was, as I said, somehow kinda forgettable when she wasn’t right in front of you.
When we hadn’t had contact for six weeks, Dad tracked down the land line numbers for their old school buddies. They were surprised to hear from him — Liz had never arrived, so they had just assumed she’d cancelled her visit. No-one had thought to check. I eavesdropped on the conversation, and it sounded for all the world like *they* had forgotten about Aunt Liz, too.
From there it became a missing person case. The local cops came and talked to all of us; the farmhand who’d been seen snogging her was briefly detained, then let go, dad got grilled at length, even my hellion brothers were questioned thoroughly to see if this was one of their wild and dangerous pranks gone wrong.
But everything was a dead end. Nobody knew where Liz was, or what had happened to her.
The remains of her old mini were found halfway across the country, burned out on a beach, on a derelict stretch of ragged, rocky coastline. The police assumed murder and combed the area for remains. But even the most expert divers couldn’t conquer the incredible undertow and fast-shifting seabed of that coastline to look for evidence, so none was forthcoming.
Eventually the cops collectively shrugged and said that there was really nothing more they could do unless more information suddenly came to light. The locals knew nothing, no witnesses had come forward, and the trail was cold. As far as anyone knew, poor aunt Liz had been murdered on some desolate beach, far away from her home.
It didn’t feel fair to me. She’d once mentioned wanting her remains buried on our farm, in the graveyard plot beside grandma and grandad.
So, in my grief, I went into her room to look for something of hers to bury beside them.
Like I said, Liz didn’t have many things. Her room was pretty spartan, and her wardrobe was mostly sensible farm stuff. There was one exception: she, like me, did like to read, and she had a pretty good collection of well-thumbed books. I think it’s the escapism – even the most mediocre girl can lose herself in the plot of some trashy romance novel, imagine there’s still hope of being swept off her feet by that handsome stableboy, his inexplicable yearning for chubby plain girls.
So I set myself the task of going through the books, to find the right one to bury in the graveyard plot.
Most of them were exactly what you’d expect, but some of them were racier than I was used to. I felt various parts of my body flushing and tingling, as I read breathless prose about calloused hands touching the softest flesh of the protagonist. Okay, if I’m honest with myself, I might have got a little *too* invested in my project at that point. But that was also why I persisted going through her entire collection, until I found the ragged paperback from 1970, entitled Tawny Sands. And inside that trashy cardboard romance cover, I discovered not the tale of Tawny Sands, but some carefully hand-cut, stitched-in pages. A handwritten story in my Aunt’s rounded penmanship: Memoirs of a Long Pig.
I read her story twice in a row, utterly gripped.
Aunt Liz was no Stephen King – heck, she wasn’t even the Goosebumps guy – but her story was gripping and compelling, and I couldn’t put it down. Even if I hadn’t known her, I think that would have been true.
The gist of it was that Liz, when she was sixteen, had discovered that our family had a very long history of eating what she described as ‘Long Pork’. It’s an antipodean term, anglicised from the Pacific Islands: human meat.
Like me, young Liz still had some hopes and dreams. In one of her many failed attempts to find a special talent, she’d taken up cooking as a hobby. Naturally, with our family’s overabundance of meat, she’d scoured the freezers in the shed for ingredients: the racks of ribs and stacks of pork chops, butcher-paper wrappings all neatly labelled with the first letter of the name of the animal they came from.
She found familiar meat from Rodney, one of the pigs that had been recently slaughtered, emblazoned with an ‘R’ in her father’s strong, blocky lettering. There were cutlets labelled ‘M’ for Mary, from one of the lambs she’d hand-reared, and ‘F’ for Ferdinand, the steer they’d killed the month before. But she couldn’t explain the many, many curious parcels of meat on one side of the huge freezer, all labelled ‘J’ – at least, not until she took it all out and assembled it as well as she could on the scoured concrete floor of the killing shed. A big, frozen jigsaw puzzle without the box, her best attempt to discover what kind of beast the pieces had come from.
The animal, she quickly realised, was a Long Pig. Her own Aunt Jenny, who had died the month before – just after her fortieth birthday.
Fortunately, or perhaps not, for Liz, her father entered the shed right at that moment and realised his daughter had discovered the family secret. He sat down calmly on the lid of the freezer, and explained to her that this was a long-running family tradition, dating back to at least before his grandfather had been born.
“There are always people in life, Liz,” he’d said, “who won’t really amount to much. They want to be useful, want to be more. They strive and they strive, trying job after job, hobby after hobby, trying to hit on something they’re really good at. Something that makes them special. Those people can waste their whole lives, chasing dreams that never come true. Eventually they die unfulfilled, knowing that all their time has been wasted. That what they leave behind will fade quickly.”
His voice was oddly gentle as he leaned down and patted one of the neatly wrapped cuts of Aunt Jenny, still sitting frozen on the shed floor.
“Your Aunt Jenny was one of those people. So was my Aunt Irene.” He paused to gaze at his daughter, his next words peppered with emphasis. “But you see, my sweet Liz, they did find a purpose in life. They did find a way to be special, and they left this world utterly certain of their gift.” He stood up, stretched his back. “Let me show you.”
Liz waited while my grandad meticulously stacked the meat back into the freezer, all but one J-marked parcel that looked for all the world like a thick venison steak. He took her back to the farmhouse, and reverently unwrapped the deep red, heavily marbled meat to let it thaw. Then he laid it in the family’s ancient, cast-iron pan, basting it with butter and rosemary until a heavenly scent filled the kitchen, and Aunt Liz couldn’t stop her mouth from watering.
“Just try it. Let her show you. You’ll see exactly what I’m talking about.”
Even though she knew it was her aunt, Liz couldn’t stop herself from taking that first bite. There was something transcendent about the smell, overriding her natural revulsion that this was human meat, not one of their farm animals. For the first time, she truly realised it: we’re just another kind of animal. And weren’t her memories of Mary the lamb almost as fond as her memories of Aunt Jenny?
Liz explained then, in her curly handwriting, the explosion of taste that had assaulted her when she tried the steak. It was tender, it was succulent, it was rich beyond imagining. The fats melted on her tongue, lingering somewhere between pork and beef, but oddly neither. The flavour of the meat defied identification; something familiar, yet not.
But one thing she couldn’t deny; it was the most delicious thing she had ever eaten. Tears dripped onto her plate, mingled with the juice, the grease — not grief, but a pure, real, giddy delight.
“You’re tasting your aunt’s love for this family,” my grandad explained. “Her entire life was carefully curated, to eventually make unforgettable moments for us, just like this. This was her way of being special. This was the greatest gift she could possibly bring to our world – and because she realised that, she died with not a single regret. She knew her life had purpose. She was perfectly, completely fulfilled.”
I felt those words. I felt them lodge in my own belly, settling uncomfortably deep. I knew Aunt Liz, probably better than anyone else in the family. I’d seen how fucking happy she’d been on her fortieth, how goddamn fulfilled she was, despite apparently being a *nobody* and achieving *nothing*. Somehow, in the space of a single day, she had gone from being a forgettable background character to becoming the *main character*, immortalising herself in our family’s history with her sacrifice. Quite literally becoming part of all of us, forever.
I went to the killing shed after I finished with the book. I looked inside the freezers.
But there were no vacuum-sealed packages labelled ‘L’, no matter how deep I dug into the frozen stacks of plastic-wrapped flesh. Panicked now, not sure if I wanted to connect all the dots or unconnect them, I tried to think back over the last few months, recall any meals that had been unusually good. A few Sundays ago, we’d had a stew that really hit the spot and left me craving more. And I realised that the family had a really good night that night; my brothers behaved themselves, my parents didn’t fight, and grandma and grandad had been there. Hadn’t they looked far more… expectant than they should have?
I strained my brain, trying to recall if I’d seen the homekill bag on the kitchen bench – if I’d registered what letter it was. I knew it wasn’t an L. I would have remembered if it was an L.
And then it hit me, the memory, the connection, sizzling as if branded with a hot iron.
It had been an ‘E’.
E for Elizabeth. Not for Edward the pig.
I snorted at my own stupidity – of *course* Liz was short for Elizabeth – and as I comprehended my lack of smarts, I felt something give inside me.
I wasn’t clever, and nothing, nothing would ever make me smart. I had no big talents. I wasn’t beautiful, or even cute – and even if I had a million plastic surgeries, it still wouldn’t fulfill me. It wouldn’t be real.
I was a Liz.
I was a Jenny.
I was whoever the first aunt had been, the aunt who had dedicated her life to making her flesh as delicious as possible, who had worked every damn minute to be the best Long Pig she could ever be.
I wondered how many magical family evenings had been spent eating Aunt Jenny. How many glorious, satisfying, memorable dishes had been made out of her.
And… I wanted that. I wanted to finally know I had a *purpose* in life. One so simple, and so easy to achieve.
I wanted what Aunt Liz had.
***
It's my fortieth birthday today and I’m so fucking excited. For the last twenty-four years, I’ve dedicated myself to this moment; I’ve eaten exactly what I needed to, I’ve exercised just enough, but not too much, to maintain that perfect balance of marbling vs tenderness. I’ve relaxed and meditated to keep all those amazing flavours inside of me. I’ve researched all the greatest meats in the world, from prime Angus beef to A5 Wagyu. I really think I may have outdone myself.
I’m having my hair and makeup done at the local salon this afternoon, and I’m going to look so pretty; all prize piggy on show at the fair. I’m even going to have a big red ribbon in my hair, in memory of Aunt Liz.
Maybe there’ll be a cute boy I can snog in the wool shed, maybe there won’t – I don’t really care; because the most important, most certain thing is that I’m going to be the most delicious Long Pig in the history of our entire family.
I’m going to make everyone so damn happy, and I’m just so glad I can share my story with you all, instead of hiding it in a grubby book like poor Aunt Liz.
My only real disappointment? That you won’t get to taste me.
Reader, I have loved, loved my life. My Long Pork will be out of this world: once tasted, never, ever forgotten.

Our 2 oldest are 19 and 18 and live at home. Our oldest is in college but is dropping out for at least a yr as she doesn't know what she wants to major in so she wants to take a break to figure it out and she is hoping to move states with her bf in the next yr or so. My 18 yr old was doing online HS but in the last mo th or so kinda fell behind and just came to us saying she isn't going to complete her HS diploma requirements in time to graduate. She does have 2 part time jobs and has been looking into GED programs. Now their Dad and I have brought up the subject of rent and while they didn't seem to mind at he cost seemed to be out of left field for them. We live in WA state and have a pretty high min wage. Once summer starts they will both be working full time. Rent will include everything with 1 meal a day (dinner). Any special foods/snacks will be covered by them along with personal items but we will cover normal household items like toilet paper, shampoo/conditioner, toothpaste etc. If rent is paid we will not expect them to do chores except the normal pick up after yourself, do your dishes and laundry etc. Now for the cost...we were thinking of charging 500 a month everything included. When my 19 yr old was in college we didn't charge her rent at all, and if she would have stayed enrolled we would have let her stay rent free but not now that she is dropping out. Our 18 yr old isn't paying until summer when school is technically over as she isn't going to college right away anyway and was planning a gap yr even before she decided not to get her HSD. They are both mad at us and think that 500 is too much. If we broke down everything not including food into 5ths it would be a little over 600 so I think 500 with dinners included is a great deal but they don't as it almost pays our mortgage. Am I expecting them to pay an unreasonable amount?
Edit: 18 yr old just started her second job yesterday. As for school she was finishing her senior yr online as she wasn't living g at home at the beginning of the school yr and online HS was easier for her at the time. When she moved back home she continued with it and continued to tell us she was keeping up. She came to her Dad about a week ago saying she wasn't going to graduate and she started falling behind around a month and a half ago but didn't want to tell us. We didn't realize as we trusted her and her work hrs were under 20 a week.
Also rent prices in our area aren't outrageous but also aren't cheap. For a studio apartment in a decent area it's between 1200-1500 a month not including pet fees and other bills. They can't move in with my oldest bf as he lives out of state and is in the USAF. Both of my girls have worked since they were 16/17, my oldest is still at her first original job and holds a manager position and they both have a decent savings started. They also already are able to come and go and have guests over so not much will change there.

Before we begin, I apologize in advance if this is long and rambly. Just trying to organize my thoughts and get some input from people who may have had similar experiences and/or are willing to read through my meandering bullshit.
I am a 25 year old EI with two years of experience who is currently unemployed. I started working with a mid-sized consulting company once I got my Bachelor's degree, brought on as an hourly employee in the geotechnical department while a full-time Master's student. I got my Master's in geoenvironmental engineering back in May, stuck around the company until December. Decided to take a break after leaving as one final hurrah in honor of being done with school, and am now starting the job hunt again.
There were a few different reasons I left my previous company, but one of the big ones is that I'm mainly interested in environmental work, and despite management saying they'd transfer me to a more environmentally-focused position, it never came to fruition. I wanted to try out geotechnical work because I really liked the geotech classes in uni, but I absolutely despised the work I was doing in geotech; field work was ok, but geotechnical reporting is absolutely soul-crushing. All that being said, the company I worked for also did environmental work, and I've had some low-level interaction with the department; realistically, it seems like it was just the same shit as geotechnical but with a different coat of paint. Somewhat interesting field work, followed by hours of templatized report writing and scraping the bottom of the barrel for billable hours.
Basically, I don't like geotech, and I'm worried that environmental engineering is going to be a lot of the same shit I didn't like about geotech, just under a different name and with different terms. I originally wanted to do remediation, but a lot of people I've talked to who did remediation absolutely fucking despised it. I've been looking at different jobs and subsets of engineering, and I really think something along the lines of coastal engineering would be something I'd love; the Army Corps of Civil Engineering specifically has some amazing sounding job openings, full of shit like stream and marsh restoration, jetty and coastal structure design, etc., but I really don't want to get my PE working in government, as that goes against everything I've ever been told in terms of career development. The big problem is, there are no private coastal opportunities in my city (somewhat expected, as I'm about four hours from the coast...), and I'm not planning on moving until I'm done paying my student loans.
One of the things that appeals to me with coastal engineering is that, I assume just from being a specialized market, the work looks a lot more in line with the shit I got into engineering for in the first place; design, modeling, that kind of thing. I don't want to be a project manager, I want to do technical and design work. Additionally, I want to work with water resources; this is one of the entire reasons I got into civil engineering. With that in mind, I've been looking into some local positions that I feel have some transferable skills, water resources type jobs, and it seems like nearly all of them are either stormwater or wastewater oriented, neither of which I'm particularly interested in. This is where I'm having some trouble trying to figure out what to do next.
I guess one of the big questions would be, would a job like this even exist? As in, a water resources oriented job that doesn't pertain to stormwater or wastewater? I've used a dozen different variations of searches on Indeed using keywords like modeling, water resources, water quality, etc., and it just gives me search results for wastewater work. Some examples of what I'd love to do are the things I did in my groundwater resources engineering and surface water quality modeling classes; in groundwater resources engineering, my final project included modeling the groundwater table for a local area based on well data. It was a little bit ago, so I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but another student used my model in his project and did something pertaining to contaminant transport in the groundwater. In surface water quality modeling, we did a lot of Simulink programming to model a large local watershed area. Is this kind of shit unique to academia, or can you score a job like this in consulting? If so, what are some companies I should be keeping an eye out on for job openings?

Hi everybody,
I have a Masters in Clinical Psychology from a well-reputed European University, but I have been working as a literature teacher for teenagers in a private school here in Switzerland for the past 10 years. When I first moved, my French wasn't good enough to find a Psychology job here, and there weren't many options in English. I worked in a couple of institutions (intern jobs because of my lack of French), but I ended up doing a course to be able to teach English here, and I never looked back. Until now! 😅 I am quite happy teaching, and I managed to move up and am now part of the direction team. So I recently started teaching Psychology (high school), and I am loving it! So much that I am thinking about getting back into the field. I had forgotten so many things that made me choose it in the first place!So here are my questions:

• Any Clinical Psychologists out there that can help me understand the job market a bit?
• I did some research, and there are some research jobs, but I'm not really interested in those...I would ideally like to go back to 1-1 counselling like I did way back then...
• In my home country, it is possible to do psychotherapy once you finish your MA in Clinical Psychology, but is it the same here? It seems to me that in Switzerland they ask for additional training... I wouldn't mind doing it, but it would be a big investment (time/money). I now speak French fluently, by the way. :)
• What about online counselling? Is that a thing now?

Thank you in advance for your feedback! :)

TL;DR - What’s the most cost effective neighborhood for GREAT schools, nature, and nice/community oriented people?
We’re originally from a <10,000 population town in Arkansas. I got a job in DC a year ago and left a DV situation with 2 small kids. I didn’t really want to live in DC but for whatever reason it was the only job I could find then, so I pushed out a liiiitle bit to Arlington and commuted for the schools and a slower paced home life. I haven’t been able to save much, but I recently got a remote job and I’m going to use this opportunity to move to a lower COL area, hopefully buy a house in a few years.
I value my children’s education - so much that I wanted to homeschool them but as a single mom from a poor family I had to let that go. (I was a semester away from a Bachelor’s degree in engineering, but ran out of money and that’s on my agenda too.) I have a 4 year old and 1 year old, so I have a little time to get it figured out but it’s definitely top priority for me in the long run. I prefer a Montessori-type school but I can let that go if there’s a school where it isn’t just sit down and be quiet.
Next, we like trees and nature walks. I want to be closer to the beach than the 3 hour drive we have now but not so close that tourist traffic ruins the summer if there is tourist traffic?
Also, I don’t plan to go out often. I’m going to try to go out without the kids once a month just for my sanity but I don’t need a night/club scene nearby. Just something like a movie theater or spa.
Last, thanks for reading all this. I know you probably didn’t expect to read a life story and a “where should we live” post at 5am, but here I am. There should be a travel agent type job for finding a place to live.

(TL;DR: My brother is a freeloading hog that doesn’t touch grass or communicate with ppl and just stays in his mom’s basement playing video games and I’m not sure I’m worried or envy him)
I (18->19) and my brother (22->23) both live at our parent’s house. For many years I’ve been planning to move out due to mental and personal reasons. Found an apartment that’s not too big nor small for a good price and it’s about 2hrs from where I would originally stayed. There’s a college nearby and plenty of places looking for new hires so I’m not worried about rent. I’m making friends in the area (others go to school there) so i wouldn’t be alone and confused when I move.
I’ve learned the basic stuff an individual needs to know to live on their own (cook, clean, etc.) My brother on the other hand barely does.
Made multiple friends, went on a couple dates, and started working at 15 but my brother has been in 1 relationship that only lasted a day and it was with a girl over the internet. He doesn’t go out at all…unless he has work, wants junk food or wants a better gaming system/pc.
He finally got his first job at 20 or 21yrs (idr) and it pays very well. He gets paid $300-$400 every week and I make $10hr + tips at get paid every 2 weeks.
Groceries or cook meals never last. My brother well take VERY BIG portions and not think about others, he would also eat our snacks (me and our father mainly) without asking and we would find empty containers and bags. (We both had to start hiding our stuff)
I help our family financially sometimes (food bills etc.) while my brother is the cause of some bills, he would tell our mother, “ask younger sibling for it”. He’ll ask us for money and get mad when we ask him. (he makes more$$$) when asked to do ANYTHING he gets made, when we give ADVICE he gets mad!!!
At this point I’m not sure if im mad or worried about him. We’re both raised very differently and kinda envy him, but at the same time I’m worried about his future…

I worked at Shake Shack in high school around 2018ish, and honestly it was the best job I ever had lol. I was trained on everything except grill, and I remember literally everything so I think I would be a valuable asset to a team at any store now, especially being older and willing to work more hours (my dream shack location-wise isn’t hiring though 💔).
Going on the careers website tho, it seems every store in my area is only hiring full-time, and even the job filter only shows full-time. I’m a college student so I definitely can’t put in 40 hours a week lol. Just curious if anyone knows anything about this.

Why being transgender is not a sin, by MARK WINGFIELD NOVEMBER 9, 2018

Link to original post: https://baptistnews.com/article/why-being-transgender-is-not-a-sin/#.YYk6tE7MK72
I recently met a lovely young family in the northern suburbs of Dallas. They told me they previously attended a large Baptist church there – until their high school son became their daughter.
The mother was committed to her volunteer work in the church, and when she told the pastor who supervised that ministry area that her child was transgender, the pastor said: “That’s fine. We love everybody here. But it’s still a sin.”
“Blah, blah, blah, but….” Whatever comes after the “but” always negates whatever nice things were said in the first part of the sentence. Beware of the “but.”
Some would look kindly on the suburban pastor’s response because, after all, the pastor didn’t kick the family out of the church or condemn the teenager straight to hell. But.
Even among Christians who appear kind or progressive, too often the existence of someone who identifies as transgender gets chalked up to “sin.” No doubt that’s the root reason so many Christians happily pile on against transgender persons and their family members about bathrooms and schools, because in their heart of hearts, they don’t understand transgender identity and simply default to thinking it is a sinful lifestyle choice.

I think we all can agree that a “sin” is something we do that we shouldn’t do, something we have a choice about. If I eat an entire half-gallon of ice cream, I am likely guilty of the sin of gluttony. I didn’t have to eat the ice cream. If I fixate on why other people are more athletic and agile than me in my mid-life body, I probably am guilty of the sin of envy. There is a way for me to redirect my thoughts to avoid envy.
The same is not true of transgender identity. Emphatically and conclusively, this is not a choice. It is who a person is. Did you choose to have red hair? Did you choose to be tall or short? Did you choose to have the genetic markers you have? Of course not. Transgender persons are simply acknowledging that the gender identity assigned to them at birth because of physical anatomy does not match the brain, biochemical and genetic gender identity they know inside.
Since writing a column two years ago about understanding transgender identity – an opinion article that has been read more than 1 million times and led to giving a TED Talk on the same subject – I have conversed with hundreds of transgender persons and family members of transgender persons. That’s not just ministerially speaking. It really has been hundreds. Every one of those transgender persons has told me that they knew from their earliest awareness – from the time they were 4, 5 or 6 years old – that the gender anatomy they showed on the outside did not match who they knew they were on the inside.
There is an increasing body of scientific evidence to back up this assertion. For example, a 2008 study published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior found that female fetuses with increased prenatal exposure to androgens are more likely to have gender nonconforming behaviors. Researchers – including some theologically conservative ones – point to environmental factors that may be responsible for what appears to be an increase in transgender identity through endocrine disruption beginning in the 20th century. This is linked to industrialization, development of new chemicals and medicines.
But these environmental factors only explain an increase, not the presence of transgender identity, which has been documented for centuries. The American Academy of Pediatrics (not to be confused with a small association of conservative pediatricians often cited by critics of transgender rights) recently released a new policy statement explaining that variation in gender identity is a normal part of human diversity. For an excellent, lay-friendly description of the emerging science of transgender identity, look to this report from Harvard University.

I could quote chapter and verse for study after study, and that would not change the minds of some people who are determined to label as sinful anything they do not understand, usually because “the Bible says so.” In these cases, I ask people to tell me where in the Bible being transgender is condemned as sinful. The only answer usually offered is Deuteronomy 22:5, which says: “A woman shall not wear a man’s apparel, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment; for whoever does such things is abhorrent to the Lord your God.”
Here’s the problem with even a literal reading of that passage: Transgender persons will tell you they are not “men” putting on “women’s” clothing or “women” putting on “men’s” clothing. Instead, they are declaring an identity much deeper than clothing; they are saying that they are dressing outwardly to match who they know they are on the inside. This is not cross-dressing, which is not the subject of this column. Cross-dressing is about finding pleasure in wearing certain clothes. Being transgender is about finding mental and spiritual peace by aligning outward presentation with inner being.
Occasionally, people will point to Genesis 1:27 as a condemnation of transgender identity: “male and female he created them.” Most transgender persons will tell you they believe God has, in fact, created them as either male or female; the problem is how they have been labeled by others who are not God.
Some people today identify as “gender fluid,” meaning they find in themselves bits of both male and female identity and cannot definitely say they are one or the other. While this may sound unsettling to some of us on first hearing, a return to Genesis might help. There we also learn that God created both “night” and “day” and that God separated “land” from “sea.” Yet we have no problem understanding the existence of dawn and dusk or marshes and everglades. Also, the point of Genesis 1 is inclusion, not exclusion. The ancient text tells us that God created everything: “and,” not “or.”
The other lesson we need to keep learning from Genesis is that all humanity is created “in the image of God.” Everybody. Without exception. When we look at others who are different than us and try to see in them the image of God, we gain new understanding and empathy.
Sometimes well-meaning Christians get this part but still can’t get over the “sin” label. So they will say things like, “All of us are sinners in God’s eyes, and it’s just that my sin is different than your sin.” That’s another way of saying, “I love you, but….”
There’s an easy way to remember why this is wrong: Transgender identity is about who a person is. It is about their fundamental being as humans created by God in God’s image – an image that God has declared to be good.

Hello, I'm going to be starting a education degree in August, I'll be studying the teaching areas of art and technology. And I plan to teach in Sydney.
I'm wondering for people that teach relief of average what's your day like, do you get called in 5 days a week? Do you prefer it to a salary job? I'm hoping it's going to suit me as if I don't like the school or something it's a one time thing basically so no commitment.
Also how much do you make? I guess this would depend on how much you are called in. But on average? Do you make more than entry level teachers on a salary?
Thanks!

Even before Indiana abortion restrictions took effect last year, Indiana in 2022 had a lower ratio (9.86) of nurses to 1,000 population than neighboring states of Kentucky ( 9.97), Michigan (10.11), and Ohio (11.09). Indiana's new abortion restrictions may result in existing and prospective nurses choosing other careers, leaving Indiana, or becoming traveling nurses. Young women especially are conscious how abortion restrictions may impact their health needs personally, let alone professionally as nurses.
https://nursejournal.org/articles/the-us-nursing-shortage-state-by-state-breakdown/
As noted in the above article, nursing shortages are a national problem to be aggravated by an expected increase in retirees as well as increased demand as Baby Boomers age and require more medical services.
<< A lack of nurse educators keeps nursing schools from being able to admit enough students to address the shortfall. A shortage of nurses means more burnout and more nurses choosing to leave the profession, contributing to the shortage.
In addition, the aging of Baby Boomers means that more nurses are retiring at a time when an aging population has a greater need for healthcare providers. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the nursing shortage.>>
Many Indiana women rely on medication abortions aided by doctors practicing remotely in other states, who often rely on "shield laws" in those states to protect them from prosecution in states with abortion restrictions. If anti-abortion states are successful in blocking these shield laws and restricting telemedicine abortions, Indiana may become even less attractive to young women concerned with their own reproductive rights.
<< A clash is looming between anti-abortion red states and the blue state telemedicine shield laws trying to preserve abortion access.
More than a dozen states have laws shielding medical providers and others from out-of-state investigations and prosecutions regarding abortions and gender affirming care. But six states — Colorado, Massachusetts, New York, California, Vermont and Washington — have gone even further.
Those shield laws offer protection for doctors, nurses and other practitioners who prescribe and send abortion pills to people living in states that ban or severely restrict abortion.>>
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4671299-abortion-bans-clash-shield-laws/
<< According to a new report from the abortion-rights research group Society of Family Planning, nearly 8,000 people per month in states with bans or severe restrictions were getting medication abortion from clinicians operating under shield law protections from October through December 2023. >>
The personal turmoil of nursing in states with abortion bans and restrictions also lessens the desirability of those states not only for nursing recruits, but also existing nurses.
<< National articles provide a look at how some nurses and physicians are quitting or moving because they cannot handle the trauma they see when women are denied health- and life-saving abortion care during a pregnancy crisis. For instance, Leah Wilson, a Texas nurse, had to watch her pregnant patient for days as the woman’s infection worsened and drew closer to sepsis because the fetus still registered a heartbeat when the woman’s water broke at 19 weeks of pregnancy. The nurse said, “You know what? I’m not doing this anymore,” and she left her job. Wilson had worked with high-risk pregnancy patients before and provided them with support for fetal loss, but she had never seen patients denied standard medical care until after Roe v. Wade was overturned.>>
https://www.reliasmedia.com/articles/abortion-bans-lead-physicians-nurses-to-avoid-certain-states
https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/work-environment/health-safety/srh-advocacy/
Shortages of nurses increase the workplace burdens and stress for remaining nurses. This can compromise the quality of healthcare for patients, as does Indiana laws providing for lax continuing education requirements and lowered training supervision quality for student nurses.
Unlike neighboring states, Indiana has no continuing education requirements for RNs or LPNs.
https://www.nursingce.com/ceu-requirements/indiana
https://www.nursingcenter.com/continuing-education/ce-state-requirements
<< Estimates predict that Indiana would need an additional 5,000 nurses by 2031, equal to graduating an additional 1,300 nurses each year until that time, according to the Indiana Hospital Association. >>
https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/2024/02/12/indiana-has-a-problem-a-lack-of-nurses-and-lawmakers-are-trying-to-help/
To increase the supply of nurses, a new bill would ease the requirements for nurses supervising student nurses.
<< While most of the bill received glowing support in testimony, one issue was a bit of a sticking point for nurses working in clinical settings: language striking minimums for preceptors, or licensed nurses supervising students during rotation. Previously, preceptors needed 18 months of experience before they could be drafted to teach and mentor the next generation.
The new law has no minimum requirement.
Rep. Cindy Ledbetter, a nurse practitioner with a doctorate, cautioned against the move, saying unprepared nurses would be given to students to address a shortage.
“My concern is you have a brand new nurse and the hospital requires them to precept and they’re not ready to translate what they’ve learned in the classroom themselves into a real-world scenario,” said Ledbetter, R-Newburgh. “(I’m concerned) that we’re going to … lose more nurses on the other end.”>>

The 2024 cfb season will see a lot of dissatisfaction from the fanbases of some of the biggest schools. The pressure to win has never been greater however it’s never been harder to be great in cfb due to conference consolidation and the NIL making the difference between the haves and have nots greater than ever. Here are my predict for the schools are likely to need new coaches after this season…

USC fires Lincoln Riley. My prediction? USC goes 5-7 in 2024
Miami fires Mario Cristobal. My prediction is Miami goes 4-8.
Dabo Swinney retires from Clemson. My prediction is the Tigers go 6-6.
Ohio State fires Ryan Day. My prodiction is Ohio State goes 9-3 with losses to Michigan, Nebraska and Oregon knocking them out of the playoffs.
Notre Dame fires Marcus Freeman, Irish go 7-5.
Kirk Ferentz retires from Iowa, Hawkeyes go 7-5.
Matt Rhule job jumps to Ohio State, Nebraska goes 10-2 with playoff birth.
Lane Kiffin jumps to a more elite school, Ole Miss is 7-5
Josh Huepel fired, Tennesse drops to 6-6
Penn State fires James Franklin, Nitney Lions go 8-4.
Florida fires Billy Napier, Gators go 3-9.
Dallas Cowboys hire Sark, Longhorns go 9-3
Drinkwitz job jumps, Missouri goes 8-4
Razorbacks fire Sam Pittman, go 1-11
Auburn fire Hugh Freeze, Tigers go 4-8
Tom Herman job jumps, FAU goes 10-2.
Gus gets fired at UCF, Golden Knights go 5-7.
Deion Sanders resigns from Colorado to take NFL job, Buffalos go 9-3.

You think the past 3 years were crazy carousels? This will be the mother of them all.