Rachel Rosenthal

I attribute my success to finally finding work that I truly love and am happy doing. I've done several things in my career and earned degrees, but in those other jobs, I would go to work and make money but I was not happy. I would wake up in the morning and think, ugh, I gotta go to work. But now I wake up in the morning and I am ready to go. I feel that I have succeeded doing what I'm doing because I am happy doing it. A lot of people have to make money because they have to pay their bills, so they'll be at a job that they're miserable with only because they need to be there. But I don't feel that way anymore. My biggest success is this work with children, even though I have all these degrees behind my belt and even applied for correctional officer positions. I see where my calling is. My calling was to make sure the children don't end up in the correctional facility. I'm giving them a positive input, finding their path in their way of development, and I think this is the best thing that I ever did. It really is a blessing because I'm happy.

You have to have patience, definitely. Be open-minded and really have experience. I feel that way because I've spoken to several people in my life where they can give advice about children but don't have any of their own, so I don't know, that's my input on that. But the biggest thing is patience. You need to be caring and loving. You have to enjoy what you choose to do. I found out that a lot of times with all the work that I did with the paralegal and everything, I went to work but I didn't love it. So you really have to be dedicated to it and be willing to take the good with the bad.

The biggest challenges would be dealing with the different personalities of children and, like I said, dealing with parents in general. I've had positive input and I've had negative input, so I always end up with a smile on my face and just roll with it. Another major challenge is that since COVID, a lot of people are working from home, so daycares have gotten less and less as far as children-wise. I went from 12 children before COVID and now I'm down to like 6, so it cut it in half. That's why I had to actually work two jobs, so I'm working in the evening and on the weekends doing Amazon Flex delivery, working 7 days a week.

The values most important to me are honesty, communication, loyalty and of course, I add love. But I do have love for these children just like my grandchildren. When they leave, I'm practically crying, like oh my god, they're moving away. I still keep connected with some of the parents and I'm actually still seeing these children grow. I had a little one who I had at a very young age and I potty trained her in a week. The parent has been my friend ever since, and I've known her for 15 years. Every time she introduces me, she always introduces me by talking about how I took care of her kids and how I potty trained her daughter in a week. We are still very good friends till now. It really is a blessing because I'm happy.