My Big Announcement

Please allow me to start this (lengthy) post by saying that I am happy to be coming to you live from my very own living room. Yep, you heard me. We got the internet at our hizzy. Rest assured you'll be hearing a lot more from me. (I saw you roll your eyes. But really was 1 post a week enough? I choose to think not.)

I am going to try to keep this as short as possible, but there are a lot of details that I feel you bloggers deserve to hear. After all y'all know all there is to know about our lives. (See, there I go rambling already.)

After 3 glorious years I’m moving on to closer pastures. Next year I will be molding the minds at Lineville High School. 12 precious miles from my hizzy. Can I digress and tell you a back-story?

I was never one of those kids that grew up declaring their future occupation. At one point my parents thought I was going to be a car salesman because I could tell you the make of any car in sight. In college I changed my major no less than 3 times: social work(after 2 semesters I learned it wasn’t for me), Speech Pathology(had to get your masters to be able to even interview for a job so not for me), psychology(although interesting not for me). It went on and on. I was so torn about what to major in. My parents encouraged me to go into nursing to ensure having a job. Bless their hearts. They meant well. But driving near hospitals makes my throat close up. Needles make me shiver inside. When Adam and I started dating I was tinkering with the idea of real estate and I allowed him to do what no girl should allow a boyfriend to do. He swayed my decision and I changed my major to marketing. (After all, the building was closest to the parking lot.). *Edited to add: it was a good decision beacuse it paved the way for me to teach business.

Anyway, I did end up in real estate and LOVED it. Problem? NO benefits. And since A-master and me like to go to the doctor if we get sick I had to move on and get a big girl job with health insurance. I took a medical device sale job with a company and for reasons that aren’t worth mentioning it just wasn’t for me. Calling on doctors offices with mean, mean nurses was not what I had thought it would be.

After 4 months of being employed with that company I heard a rumor that a business teaching position was going to open up at C’burg. Now let’s go back to being little again….you know what I didn’t want to be? A teacher. In my mind teaching meant elementary school kids and I don’t have the patience for little kids. High school never crossed my mind.

As it would turn out my friend Allison’s husband was going to be the assistant principal at C’burg that year so I called him. Also the former principal at Adam’s high school was the principal there. I was so on the fence. I had only been at my current job for 4 months! I wasn’t even really giving it a chance!

I interviewed for the teaching job two weeks before school was to start.

Upon walking in the front door of the school I had the worst feeling in my stomach. It smelled like a school.  Like construction paper and laminating machines. It looked like a school. It felt like a school. Quiet frankly it gave me a terrible feeling. I left the interview where I had been offered the job. Got 10 miles up the road, called back and declined the offer.

Long story short- Allison's hubby called and told me not to jump to such a quick decision and think on it for a few days. Adam was all for the job. It came with very good health insurance and unless you've ever paid OUT OF POCKET for health insurance you really can't appreciate it.

So…….I quit my job a couple days later and had less than a week to prepare for teaching. I won’t go into how nervous I was about standing before teenagers who were bigger than me and trying to teach when I had never taught anyone to do anything. (except that one time I taught BFF Steph how to change a diaper.) I also won’t go into to how much those kids utterly hated my guts the first year. (*Also edited to add: they hated me in the beginning because I was super-duper strict. But they liked me by the end of the school year.)  However, it didn't take long for me to admit that I really enjoyed the job, and I have continued to enjoy it since then.

Back to current day. Here was the situation:
1. Even though I had taught for 3 years I did not have tenure. (I was not certified the 1st year I taught so that year didn't count.)
2. In case you missed this- I had a baby last year- which caused a burning desire in my heart to be closer to home.
3. My 2 peeps that talked me into going to C'burg ultimately got better opportunities and moved on.
4. A job came open at my old alma mater.
This is where all the stress came in.
5. Since the schools will be combining this position is only a 1 year job. Therefore, I WILL be pink slipped next year and looking for another job. (That sound you just heard was school teachers far and wide gasping in horror that I took a job that I knew wouldn't exist next year.)
6. I had to resign from my C'burg job by July 1st in order to ensure they would release me from my contract.
7. The board didn't meet until last night to approve me for this position. Therefore if my math is correct (which is highly unlikely) I was unemployed for 12 long, long days. (And that sound you just heard was me gasping in horror because I still can't believe I did that.)
8. That's a big deal because I tote the health insurance at this house.

So after much thought and consideration (and a whole lot of getting advice from all my peeps) I decided to take the chance and go for it. I justified all this riskiness because (other than tenured school teachers) no American knows that they will have their job next year. And really this isn't my first rodeo. I left my previous job before I was approved at C'burg. My favorite cuz told me then that, "if you never make a change then you'll always be right where you are." I knew then that I didn't want to be at that job forever and I can promise you I didn't want to be at C'burg forever either.

All of this combined caused me to be pushed to the brink of insanity and peer over the edge. All I know for sure is that I've seen the GOOD LORD take care of us in the past and I have no doubt that he will take care of us again next year when I'm unemployed. (Y'all remind me of that when I am on anxiety medication next summer while hunting down the elusive j-o-b.)

So (if you're still reading this)(and I don't blame you if your not) I will be teaching reading/career tech to 7th and 8th graders next year at LHS.

And just because I can... you can expect to be hearing from me again tomorrow. Because did I mention that we got the internet?