I took this job with trepidation even after experience working with
emotionally disturbed kids who were foster fails.
First night on the job for my 4-12pm shift four teenaged girls
burst into the cottage drunk and boisterous. They chased me with
the wooden handle of a broomstick yelling obscenities my naive
ears had never heard. Grabbed my only weapon, a phone, frantic to reach
 the male counselor at the boys cottage across the field. Following safety 
protocol. Never had to de-escalate drunk teenage girls before. Tough girls
from gang scene in South side of Chicago. Transplanted from a medium
town in Pennsylvania, to a metro area of seven million, was out of my
comfort zone. Joe zipped over saving me from bodily harm.
I showed up the next day at four.
Staff was surprised.
Dad taught me not to be a quitter.