Nice to meet you. So I assume you don't work in education any more? Can I ask what you do now that you left that field? I'm always curious to know what people do after they leave education. I was a substitute teacher for 4 years, permanent teacher for a year. I learned the hard way, too, that handling a classroom of over 30 students wasn't good for my introversion. I ended up staying in education after I left teaching, but as a school counselor, so I don't see as many students all at once. It's still an extroverted job, though, since I have to periodically do classroom presentations, and I'm still dealing with people almost all day - staff, parents, students, etc. It's not 30 kids all at once, but still enough that it can be draining. There are quiet times when I'm doing data entry, making student schedules on the computer, etc, that give me a little downtime, but I'm still often worn out by the end of the day. In my case, I think I can handle working in education; I just need a smaller school district with fewer students so I have a little less pupil interaction during the day.

What part of SoCal are you from?

@Ruby_Slipper Monrovia, on the east side of the San Gabriel Valley

@tallguy241 Nice area, at least from what I remember, having traveled once or twice through that location when I lived in the San Fernando Valley. I'm in the South Bay now, which has some nice areas, but none that I can afford. I live in a lower socio-economic area that's not very safe and not really where I want to be. But cost of living has gotten so expensive in L.A., I'm priced out of pretty much every place else. ...Well, every place except maybe a few hovels in South Central or East L.A., but I'm not quite ready to go there yet.

Thanks. I'm not a big 'chat-er' anyway. I've tried a couple of other group chats on this site and, as usual, it kind of felt like shouting into a wind tunnel, with at least 1 creeper or weirdo saying random stuff that either made no sense or was attempting to take the chat in a sexual direction. ...eyeroll

This is supposedly one of the rarest M-B types. Less than 1% of the population, according to research.

Well, here's two of the 1% right here! ? Also hello from TN.

Also, there are educator groups on here! We have our own challenges, don't we?

@purcascade I'll have to look for those. I hadn't noticed any on the site, and I've been a member for a while. I'm not a frequent user of the site, though, so I tend to miss things. I need to get back to visiting and posting more regularly here.