About Me

Greetings to the world!  

The Short Story...
My name is Rachael T. and I live in Madison County, Alabama.  I have been married since 2002, and have a B.S. in Sociology from Athens State University, with honors, Magna Cum Laude.


About this blog...

This blog serves as my home to write about topics that interest me as a student of Sociology, a mother, a woman, and an American.  I'm moderate in my political views, and try to look at both sides of the political spectrum when I write.  I believe we all need to withdraw from partisan politics and look at the issues we face today.  My blog posts from 2014 are more reflective of a more liberal political view, as I wrote for a liberal blog.  However,  I have a large range of interests that gain my focus, including, but certainly not limited to: politics, immigration and minority issues, capitalism, inequality with regards to gender, social class, and race, and quite a bit more.  You'll even find writings on motherhood, some fiction, and even a piece on Vampire Culture.  Yes, there's a full spectrum of information on this blog.

I am always up for a good debate with those who are willing to listen as much as being heard.  I believe we can learn from each other when we have opposing ideas.

I have been blogging for quite some time, off and on, for several years now.  I took many breaks from blogging while studying, but I now have more time to create original content.

More About Me...

A few thoughts going forward are worth sharing with those who may read this... important things I want you to know about me.

I worked at NASA/MSFC in the late 1990s and into the year 2004.  I worked on a contract as a travel coordinator for a great office.  I loved working with them.  I loved doing travel because my organizational skills were put to work.  I love to organize.

During those years, I met my husband, got married, and had a baby boy.  I quit work to be a stay-at-home mother.  I started a few websites that are long gone from the internet.  They were aimed at parents, stay-at-home moms, and mothers who worked from home or had small businesses.  I loved it!  Not only did I get to do more of the organizing I love to do, but I was helping people.

Then when my son was almost 5 years old, I had twin girls.  At the time, I was doing really well with my websites, and I decided to jump into a local mother of twins organization.  I first started working as the "webmaster," then moved on to doing membership, and eventually became President and then Vice President of the non-profit organization.  I signed up for the club when I was still pregnant in 2008 and stayed in the organization until September 2011 when I decided to go back to school.  The websites I had worked so hard to establish fell by the wayside because sites like Facebook stole the show.  The twins were hard enough, but trying to keep alive websites that could not compete with new social media sties was a hurdle I could not jump.

I loved working with the twins club (they also had mothers of triplets and quads... those women are my heroes).  Doing membership was exciting, as I got to talk to so many new moms and was excited to get them to join.  I increased the membership to a number the group had not seen in years.  Then as President and Vice President, I organized and managed (with help) the bi-annual consignment sale that not only benefited the group, but also other local non-profits, including the local hospital's NICU and a foundation supporting the NICU.

So far in my life, outside of the joys and accomplishments that come with starting a family, I had never felt the type of success I felt when I volunteered for a non-profit.

Going Back to Work

I got a call in early April 2016 from an old coworker at NASA/MSFC asking me if I was looking for a job because their secretary was leaving.  So, I called the program manager of the contract and told her I was interested in the job.  She called me in for an interview, and she ended up hiring me, but I ended up in a different division.  I really loved working with the group, and while I was there, I met some really wonderful people.

Once I began working, I finished up my semester and then took a year off from school because I did not know how to balance school/work/family.  I did get back to school after I learned how to juggle all three.  However, when my job took a crazy turn in March 2018, I decided it was time to leave because I really wanted to finish my degree as quickly as possible.  I was only a few classes away from being done.

Getting My Degree

When I first started back to school in 2011, I decided to aim for an Associates in Accounting.  I received the Accounting Student of the Year award and was about two semesters shy of graduating.  I was only missing a few classes but had taken all Accounting classes offered by the community college.  Then, out of nowhere, I was told that I could not graduate with that degree.  I never got a clear reason as to why I could not graduate, but later found out from a former professor, the college made an error that caused me to be pushed out of a program that had expired.  After the crushing blow, I decided to jump to a university where I could finish my degree.

When I started out at Athens State University, I wasn't sure where I wanted to go.  The jobs in accounting were not prevalent on job sites and I feared my future if I continued down that path.  In hindsight, I should have kept on the path, but I can't change that now.  Due the fact that I live in a part of North Alabama where government contracts are abundant, I decided to go for a Liberal Arts degree, but get a certification in Acquisition and Contract Management (ACM).  I aced my Project Management class and the first two classes in the ACM certification.  However, the Federal Acquisitions Regulations (FAR) was something I learned I never wanted to deal with again.  I had lofty dreams of becoming a Project Manager, but I never wanted to set my sights on the FAR ever again.

I looked into other avenues, and after having studied writing, Psychology, and Accounting in the past, I somehow ended up in love with Sociology.  I love doing research on topics, writing about what I have found, and then sharing my knowledge.  My audience has been my professors, my family, and blog readers.  I also learned that even though the topic is scary for some, I absolutely love statistics.  I ended up dropping my Stats class the first time because of test anxiety.  Test anxiety over one test.  My professor was awesome, but between work, family, and trying to memorize all I could for the test, I just broke down and couldn't go to class that night.  However, I jumped into the ring the next semester and was 1/10 of a point away from getting an A in the class.  That 1/10 of a point was aggravating, but I have long-since accepted it.

On a short side note, I did enroll at the University of Alabama (UA) through distance learning for a degree in Human Environmental Sciences.  I did this because at the time, Athens State University did not offer a class I needed, and I wanted to take at least two classes that semester.  I only took one class: Family Resource Management.  Perhaps I will go back and finish at UA in the future.

My Future

Who knows what the future holds.  I know a few things about 2019: my girls will turn 11, my son will get his driver's license when he turns 16, and we have a nice vacation planned.  As for a job, well, that is where you come in.


P.S. I am my own editor!  Sometimes, as many know, one does not see the errors in their own writing.  I do go back and edit after a period of time, even after several editing passes.  The longer I wait, the more errors I see.  Hopefully there aren't too many!