Anyone who has followed my adventures over the past year or so probably already has a good idea of what it takes to be a new teacher. Ask any of the friends I haven't had time to catch up with in ages and you'll understand that it means pretty much having no social life. Peer into my book bag at all the folders of papers and you'd see how many hours are devoted each week to marking and planning and organizing. Check out the groove I've worn into my couch by coming home and collapsing at night and you'll get a good idea of how much energy gets poured into all my students and projects every day. These are the intangibles.

What I don't talk about as much are the tangibles, but they just make my head spin. Five years at university for the two degrees required means that my monthly student loan payment are more than my bloody rent. More than my rent and I live in Vancouver - nuff said. And this for the privilege of teaching some of the most marginalized and disenfranchised students in our city. It's a good thing I know what I do is valuable and needed, or it just wouldn't be worth the costs.