Jane Watiri Taylor was working as a nurse on the Travis County Jail in Austin, Texas, when the pandemic hit. She known as it probably the most horrifying time she might bear in mind in 10 years of nursing. Not solely was she nervous about catching the virus throughout her shifts, however some inmates took out their anger and frustration on her.
“One time this individual actually tried to spit on me,” she remembered. “They stated, ‘I’ve Covid, and I’m going to provide it to you.’ They spit on my scrubs; fortunately it by no means bought on my face.”
For Ms. Watiri Taylor, 54, like so many different well being care employees, “the burnout was actual.”
“I like caring for individuals. However at that time, I used to be like, ‘I believe I’m going to alter jobs and begin caring for vegetation,’” she stated. “, vegetation are by no means going to name me names, or insult or abuse me. I actually wanted to get out of that job.”
In July 2021, she left to pursue a dream she’d had since her childhood in Kenya: to change into a farmer.
She had been rising fruit and veggies in her yard since 2015. To learn to run her personal farming enterprise, she signed up for a category by means of Farmshare Austin, a nonprofit. She subleased a small piece of land in Lexington, Texas, to develop fruit and veggies on a bigger scale. She now sells her produce at native farmers’ markets.
“I wish to nurture individuals; that’s why I bought into nursing,” she stated. “With farming, you might be nonetheless nurturing individuals, however another way. It’s actually satisfying whenever you develop stuff and are in a position to know that ultimately it’ll assist ensure somebody has bought meals on the desk and it’ll nourish their our bodies. And to me, that’s sufficient.”
Farming is far much less predictable than nursing, and the monetary instability worries her. Nonetheless, she says she is far happier than when she was working as a nurse.
“Cash is vital,” she stated. “However I need to have the ability to get up each morning enthusiastic about what I’m doing. And that’s how I really feel about farming.”
“It was time for me to take a step again.”
Adam Simon
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/23/enterprise/pandemic-workers-careers.html
