With Chat GPT
This week, I moved gently—but I moved.
In the middle of big transitions, small steps can feel invisible. But looking back over the past few days, I see a quiet flurry of intention and courage, stitched together by care.
I began my Paralegal Certification through Duke Continuing Studies. I got my textbooks, organized my materials, and even imagined who I might become by the time I finish in October. I followed up on job applications—Whole Foods, CVS, Food Lion—and kept showing up for the next possible right thing.
Creatively, I sparked something new. I began envisioning an educational video series—something playful and practical, grounded in real literacy instruction. I even started shaping my study space into a mini classroom, whiteboard and all.
I wrote. I posted to my blog. I revised my “About Me” to reflect who I really am now—an educator in transition, a truth-seeker, a daughter, a woman who’s learning to hold her own story with as much care as she has held others’. And I dove into grief: for my mother, my father (in multiple losses), and for my dog, Fungus. I wrote: “Love doesn’t give you an exit—it gives you pain.” And yet, I’m still here. That’s something.
There were also little kindnesses—like being handed a butterscotch, just because. Or when Brutus got a long, sun-drenched walk. Or when I let myself rest instead of pushing through. These weren’t detours; they were part of the road.
So here I am, on a Friday, noticing what I might’ve missed had I only looked forward:
I’m becoming.
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Published by Jessie
Hello,
My name is Jessica T. Eustice, and I’m a longtime educator in North Carolina with roughly 40 years of experience in special education, caregiving, literacy support, and community-based work.
Like many Americans, I’ve been watching the rapid development of AI with both fascination and concern. Much of the public conversation focuses on jobs disappearing, automation, and economic disruption. But I think there may be another side to the story that deserves attention.
My idea is this:
AI may push society back toward more individualized, relationship-based work — a kind of modern cottage industry built around uniquely human gifts.
Instead of everyone competing for fewer standardized corporate jobs, more people may begin creating small, human-scale forms of work based on personality, trust, mentorship, creativity, and care:
- tutoring
- coaching
- caregiving
- teaching
- art
- storytelling
- local services
- companionship
- skill-sharing
AI lowers barriers to entry in ways that make this newly possible. Someone without technical expertise can now build a website, teach online, create educational materials, organize clients, or reach a niche audience.
In my own case, I’m exploring a small ESL tutoring practice called “Gentle English With Jessie,” built around patience, emotional safety, and one-on-one encouragement for adult learners.
It strikes me that many of the abilities AI cannot easily replace — warmth, presence, trust, reassurance, lived experience, emotional intelligence — are precisely the abilities many ordinary people already possess.
I wonder whether the future of work may become less industrial and more personal again.
I thought this perspective might be of interest to NPR or WUNC because most AI discussions focus on economics and technology, while fewer focus on the possibility of a human-scale social reorganization around individual gifts and local relationships.
Thank you for reading.
Sincerely,
Jessica T. Eustice
Chapel Hill / Carrboro, NC
I identify as a teacher of English for English language learners, EC, and Social Studies; I have expertise in the humanities, am experienced in studying Language Arts, Reading, Arithmetic-for-practical-purposes, and Algebra-I.
I have striven to broaden and deepen my capabilities to maintain my integrity as a worker in the American economy since 1977 when I started working, as a cashier in fast food. Since then, I have served as a camp counselor, a work-study student in college, a puppet-wagon lady in the summer. I tutored privately, and in an academic institution and with a Learning Center. I taught as an intern teacher, a licensed teacher, and a Community College Instructor. I have also been a retail administrative assistant, and a caregiver.
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