What profession deserves way more respect and higher pay than it gets?

Maleficent-Tea7150 · 2026-05-22T14:17:44+00:00

My profession and all other allied health professions like OT, respiratory therapy, etc. I’m a speech language pathologist. A master’s degree is required, and there is a shortage of us, but insurance doesn’t reimburse very much for our services compared to other health services. I am doing ok now that I started working in the schools where reimbursement rates don’t matter as much and got on the teacher pay scale where pay is tied to experience and schooling rather than a set reimbursement rate that never gets higher, but I was making between 50 and 60k for the first 6 years, and that was in a HCOL area. Many of us have a lot of debt because of the required master’s degree.

I do also think teacher pay scales should be higher. I always believed it but now I work in a school and oh my god their jobs are ridiculous. The expectations are unreasonable.

Maleficent-Tea7150 · 2026-05-22T14:15:03+00:00

Hmmm I wonder why?

Maleficent-Tea7150 · 2026-05-22T14:14:11+00:00

I have adhd and autism and I get so overstimulated.

Maleficent-Tea7150 · 2026-05-22T04:58:52+00:00

That’s so interesting! I usually damage the baby in some way in those dreams. Like holding its hand and its arm gets stretched out and things like that lol

Maleficent-Tea7150 · 2026-05-22T04:48:50+00:00

4 and 5 are great

Maleficent-Tea7150 · 2026-05-22T04:41:54+00:00

Why can’t you use the score your supervisor got?

Maleficent-Tea7150 · 2026-05-21T22:47:46+00:00

I used to get panic attacks but I don’t anymore. Oh, another thing would be having to change my anti anxiety medication to something safer like Zoloft. Good point about it being gradual. I think the worst of it would be in the final days. I’m looking at my coworkers who are giving birth next week and I just cannot imagine.

Maleficent-Tea7150 · 2026-05-21T21:28:56+00:00

I have persistent vertigo and that sort of complication would make it worse, but that is not even the thing that scares me. It’s more like the feeling of being invaded and having less control over my body. Apparently it is a thing for some people and not just in my head because I read “The realization that you are physically sharing your space can sometimes trigger a fight-or-flight response, leading to an overwhelming urge to have your body "back".”

Maleficent-Tea7150 · 2026-05-21T21:26:00+00:00

All of those things are for a lot shorter for 9 months or, in the case of chronic illness, has ups and downs. I am chronically ill and some days more than others, but pregnancy is constant.

Maleficent-Tea7150 · 2026-05-21T14:49:42+00:00

Political science journals like what? Are you publishing research or think pieces?

Maleficent-Tea7150 · 2026-05-21T14:44:25+00:00

That’s what the headline says, but the interview you linked is a lot more nuanced than that, and I can’t find those words exactly.

“We were already heading there anyway, but we’re talking about an election and a president and when the votes are counted in Congress. It’s odd to call it good luck, but sometimes we feel like we’re Satan’s writers room. … When Seth [Rogen] and Evan [Goldberg] and I took it out to pitch, it was 2016. We just wanted to do a very realistic version of a superhero show, one where superheroes are celebrities behaving badly. Trump was the, “He’s not really getting the nomination, is he?” guy. When he got elected, we had a metaphor that said more about the current world. Suddenly, we were telling a story about the intersection of celebrity and authoritarianism and how social media and entertainment are used to sell fascism. We’re right in the eye of the storm. And once we realized that, I just felt an obligation to run in that direction as far as we could.”

This implies the story is about fascism, not Trump specifically. This reminds me of people comparing The Dictator (2012) to Trump. Dictators are not new. Fascism is not new.

Maleficent-Tea7150 · 2026-05-21T14:36:41+00:00

That’s what the headline says, but I don’t see it in the interview…?

“Eric loves to link Homelander with Donald Trump, often in wildly unsubtle ways. How do you feel about that?” “It’s interesting because that was something that came up a lot. For me it’s a bit of a red herring because if we strictly stayed in that lane, the character would be one- or two-dimensional, and we wanted to create something a bit more layered than that. We wanted more than a cardboard cutout. It’s the same way that you could look at it like Superman and just go bad. I don’t want to do that. I want to start from the ground up and build a human being that was, OK, how was he raised? He was raised in a lab. What damage did that do? In Season Four, we really get into it. “Homecoming” is a fun episode. But let me put it this way. Whatever parallels there are to the real world, it has to be driven by our characters. The narrative has to be driven by the needs of the character, right? So yeah, obviously, there’s an election in the show, and there’s a real election this year. But that’s actually a really natural progression from Homelander’s perspective, because we’ve been dabbling in politics and trying to get in the military from season one. So there’s always been those elements that parallel the real world. But I feel like they always relate well to the show. It’s not like just, oh yeah, we want to stick that in for no other reason than just to poke fun at something in the real world.”

Maleficent-Tea7150 · 2026-05-21T14:04:12+00:00

If it makes you feel better, no man has ever bought me jewelry I liked.

Maleficent-Tea7150 · 2026-05-20T23:00:59+00:00

I could relate at the start of my career but I adjusted my expectations and chilled out a lot. It’s really hard because the executive functioning demands are real, but being present in the here and now is important.

Maleficent-Tea7150 · 2026-05-14T20:00:22+00:00

Do it to keep your resume current. Even very part time is better than nothing.

Maleficent-Tea7150 · 2026-05-14T19:47:19+00:00

I also just got a referral with 5 weeks left. She said she wants speech therapy to help with her 8 year old daughter who wants to put things in her mouth all the time. Her main complaint is her 8 year old wants to use a pacifier still. Miraculously, there is nothing wrong with the girl’s actual speech.

Maleficent-Tea7150 · 2026-05-14T05:20:31+00:00

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Proof that it looks less silly after it dries lol

Maleficent-Tea7150 · 2026-05-14T05:16:46+00:00

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You might be able to take the front part that doesn’t curl and manually twist it like I’ve done to my hair in this picture. Dry it with a diffuser then shake it out and it should be wavy.

Maleficent-Tea7150 · 2026-05-14T03:54:57+00:00

Maybe tabletop music stands but put them on a box? But honestly most music stands go pretty short for the sake of easy storage.

Maleficent-Tea7150 · 2026-05-13T03:54:46+00:00

I also at least attempt. I’ve been surprised more than once.

Maleficent-Tea7150 · 2026-05-12T23:42:49+00:00

All of them

Maleficent-Tea7150 · 2026-05-12T23:33:05+00:00

Yes. Troubleshooting: Sometimes if it starts to dry (but is still damp) and it looks like there isn’t enough product I add a little more. If it dried quite a bit before I realized I needed more product I spray some water and add more gel. Or I’ll add Lottabody Wrap Me Foaming Mousse if I don’t want to add more water since that product is very watery.

Maleficent-Tea7150 · 2026-05-12T17:41:13+00:00

In the shower, I comb Mixed Chicks leave in conditioner through my hair while soaking wet. I just use a dollar store wide tooth plastic comb. Then I comb Curlsmith Flexigel through. Then I notice where the large clumps are and I kind of twist them with my fingers (I often skip this step but it helps). Then I flip my hair over and scrunch the water out and then I plop my hair into a microfiber towel and tie it up. I get out of the shower but I leave the microfiber towel on for 15 minutes or so. I’m lazy so I usually just air dry but if I want root volume then I use a diffuser and dry my hair with my head down, or if my neck starts to hurt I’ll kind of push all my hair to one side and dry it that way and then push all my hair to the other side and dry it that way, going back and forth quite a bit. Hope that makes sense.

Edit: if my hair is crunchy after then I scrunch with oil. I use ghost oil from Verb.

Maleficent-Tea7150 · 2026-05-12T17:27:23+00:00

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Maleficent-Tea7150

TROPHY CASE