As 2026 winds down, I keep looking back at a year that’s about to become history. I keep asking whether we’ll ever get a political system that works for the people, or whether we’re stuck with the one we have. I’ve spent years working with organizations that help others, and one thing has never changed: the government doesn’t seem to care about everyone equally. I’ve worked more jobs than I can count trying to make ends meet while still helping the people who need it most. The whole time, everyday workers are struggling and barely getting by.

So I question my own choices a lot. Why did I become a para educator? Why am I building a career inside a system I know is going to underpay me?

The answer is the people I work with.

My kids are mostly grown now and off doing their own thing. For the first time in a long time I’ve had room to stop and look at where I actually am.

The year I was coasting

Going into 2026, the year already felt doomed. Politics were terrible and home life could have been better. I figured, welp, f**k it, and I just coasted.

Then my daughter, 19 at the time, told me about a program she was starting that placed people in schools. I was trying to get out of rideshare driving, so I was open to anything. She explained it was basically what I’d been doing for years, just in a school. Call me intrigued. The sign-up was easy: fingerprints and a background check, nothing unusual for working with kids.

How I got here

When I finally logged in and could start accepting jobs, I had to sit with something. I hadn’t had a “real” job since 2015.

I stopped working as a group home manager shortly after my son was born, because driving for Uber and Lyft paid about four times as much. I drove at night while raising two kids with disabilities, a five-year-old and a baby. I was married then, and we worked as a team to make it all work. And it did, for years.

Then my dad passed. I paid for his cremation and for cleaning out his place. He was addicted to things he shouldn’t have been, and the place was filth. (I’m getting off track.) After that, my grandma was alone in a huge house, so in 2019 our family moved in with her to help.

You can guess what came next. COVID turned everything upside down. That time pushed me to grow in ways I didn’t expect. I realized I’m trans, and my partner and I drifted apart. By 2023 the marriage was over. I had been the main caregiver, not the main earner, and that left me lost. I struggled for a long time to find my place.

Which brings me back to sitting there, staring at my phone, looking at a list of open jobs.

The job that changed everything

I didn’t know it yet, but that list was about to change my whole world.

My first job was with high school transition students. It was fun and I liked it. It felt like the work I used to do every day. Nothing special.

Then I got assigned as behavior support staff at an elementary school. It was a multi-week job, so I was nervous, but I was glad to be in one place for a while. When I showed up, the person who greeted me asked right away, “You read the job description, right?” Of course I had. For the first time, I felt like I’d get to use all of my skills. She told me people like me weren’t the norm, and I was excited to jump in.

The job itself was simple: be ready, and if a kid gets dysregulated or needs help, go. That first week opened my eyes. It reminded me what I loved and missed about this work. I was excited to go in every morning and excited to watch the kids grow. I quickly became a favorite at that school and kept getting called back. I worked there through the last day of school and got to watch the kids I’d been with for weeks move on to their next step.

I was happy. I knew that even at this point in my life, this was what I needed to be doing. I spent the summer researching, mapping out a path and making a plan.

Fall, and figuring it out

My first fall assignment was at a middle school in my home district, and I was excited. I started on the first day of school with all the 6th graders. I got to meet every one of them and help them figure things out. As support staff, I love being one of the people kids come to. Within the first week I’d become a favorite again. I even found an open position at that school and applied. It wasn’t the right fit, but by the end of that assignment I had it figured out: I was going back to school, and those 58 credits I’d been sitting on were finally going to count.

What’s next

Now I’m getting ready to not only work in a school but be in school too. First up is a BA in Behavioral Health, which will give me the tools to meet people where they are. After that I’m going back for round two, a master’s. I haven’t decided between Special Education and general Humanities yet. Either way, the goal is my own classroom of 4th to 8th graders, helping raise the next generation.

For now, I’m finishing another four-week assignment at an elementary school in my home district. I’m smiling and ready for the next assignment and the next kiddo, one step closer to my goal. I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life, and I can’t wait for the day I stand at the front of a classroom as the official Ms. Tara.