I probably would be dead now. That really isn’t an exaggeration. I have more than one life-threatening ailment. Without the professor job I have now at the North Harris campus, I wouldn’t have medical benefits. Without them, I might not even know I was a walking time bomb. That’s one example of how Lone Star College has influenced my life. It has through a job, benefits and education.
I needed a job. After decades of working as a journalist, I had gone private. I was consulting independently. This meant I could work with various companies or individuals and show them how to write, edit, photograph or design. However, it was a hit-or-miss profession. Sometimes I got work, and sometimes I didn’t. Sometimes it rained with money, and most times, …show more content…
So, I didn’t have health insurance. That meant I didn’t get routine checkups. As an adjunct and an independent worker, I drove from one side of town through rush-hour traffic back to the other, again in rush-hour traffic. I must’ve felt the stress. I even flew in a hurry to clients in other states. Sometimes what I helped them with determined literally millions of taxpayer dollars. Again, I must have felt the stress. I got pains in my chest. At one point, I thought I was going to die. Finally, after friends’ urging, I went to ER. I discovered I didn’t have a heart attack, but I was on the road toward one. I was prescribed blood-pressure medication, and I survived. High blood pressure, they say, is a silent killer. That might have been the end of it, until I visited a graduate school I was interested in, in Lubbock. While I was up there, I felt the urge to pee. I had to go! I stopped at Starbucks. Then I stopped in the grad school. Then I stopped at a restaurant. Then I stopped along the road. I stopped every 20 minutes until I got back to Houston. Then I stopped again in the ER. I had been working on getting diabetes for the last 10 years, the doctor said. Left untreated, it kills people. I needed medical benefits, and getting the job at North Harris, provided that. I couldn’t get them on my own. But I also wanted to keep
I needed a job. After decades of working as a journalist, I had gone private. I was consulting independently. This meant I could work with various companies or individuals and show them how to write, edit, photograph or design. However, it was a hit-or-miss profession. Sometimes I got work, and sometimes I didn’t. Sometimes it rained with money, and most times, …show more content…
So, I didn’t have health insurance. That meant I didn’t get routine checkups. As an adjunct and an independent worker, I drove from one side of town through rush-hour traffic back to the other, again in rush-hour traffic. I must’ve felt the stress. I even flew in a hurry to clients in other states. Sometimes what I helped them with determined literally millions of taxpayer dollars. Again, I must have felt the stress. I got pains in my chest. At one point, I thought I was going to die. Finally, after friends’ urging, I went to ER. I discovered I didn’t have a heart attack, but I was on the road toward one. I was prescribed blood-pressure medication, and I survived. High blood pressure, they say, is a silent killer. That might have been the end of it, until I visited a graduate school I was interested in, in Lubbock. While I was up there, I felt the urge to pee. I had to go! I stopped at Starbucks. Then I stopped in the grad school. Then I stopped at a restaurant. Then I stopped along the road. I stopped every 20 minutes until I got back to Houston. Then I stopped again in the ER. I had been working on getting diabetes for the last 10 years, the doctor said. Left untreated, it kills people. I needed medical benefits, and getting the job at North Harris, provided that. I couldn’t get them on my own. But I also wanted to keep