Being a social worker is about putting all of your time and effort into the benefits and success of your client. It is about leaving all that's going on in your life at the door every single day and being there 150%. It is trying your hardest to leave it all behind when you walk out the door, but it doesn't work that way. You will be constantly thinking of new ways to try and help in any way possible. Being a social worker doesn't mean you go in at 8 am and leave at 4 pm. It means ten minutes before shifts end one or multiple of your clients have a question, a concern, a situation they are unsure how to resolve.

Being a social worker means being in difficult situations and conversations. Whether it be a client's child going into crisis or telling someone their move out date is coming sooner than expected. Being a social worker means wearing multiple hats everyday whether it be showing someone how to cook something, help to find them an apartment, or most of the time just someone to listen to.

Being a social worker means consuming your days and letting the job consume you no matter how hard you try not to let it. It means sometimes blowing off your plans just to sit home and decompress because self care is so important.

Being a social worker means not knowing how to answer the most basic question of, "How was your day?" It means vague responses and not being able to explain too much to your loved ones. It means keeping a lot inside because your job is all about confidentiality and the laws that surround it.

Being a social worker means turning clients into former clients without being able to stay friendly. Of course they can call after leaving and check in, but the sad truth is they rarely do. You give them the tools needed for their success and send them on their way into the world and wish them the best. It means spending months, even years working with them and then not hearing from them again.

It means making connections with their kids and becoming a role model for some and having to see them off. It means loving their kids and wishing they don't remember you simply because remembering you means remembering that they were homeless. It means remembering that their parent/parents had substance abuse, or mental health, or domestic abuse that was involved in their households. It means hoping that they are too young to remember the struggles.

Being a social worker means not being able to sleep some nights because your mind is consumed by their hurting. It means trying to forget them crying to you for hours about their struggles. It means going above and beyond to try and alleviate any of those struggles that change every day. Their struggles of getting their lives together piece by piece for themselves and their kids with rarely any help from family or friends. It means sometimes being all they have to talk to and get them through their days.

Being a social worker is having so much to do in so little time. Some of them will bless you and others will curse you for things out of your control and not taking it personal. It means crying on your own time sometimes to let out the hurt that surrounds you. It means not letting what goes on at work not consume you at home and vice versa. Some days it will be paperwork and calmness and others constantly running around the chaos.

Being a social worker is making a difference for the sole purpose of bettering lives of others.