Ok, so here it is: an actual update. I can't promise it will be interesting and it will mostly likely include quite a few typos, but I know some people are little Curious Georges (and I don't blame you, I do it too), so for those people who wanna know, here it is...
Well let's start from the beginning, in case you don't know what I have been doing since graduating from A&M in May.
After I graduated with my undergrad in Education, I decided I wanted to go on to graduate school for Speech Pathology- a wonderful field with really exciting opportunities. So, off I went to Baylor. {Big 12 rival school, I know. What was I thinking, I don't know.} Grades were good; actually ended up with 2 A's and 2 B's, which I guess isn't bad for starting out in graduate school in a field that you have never had experience in. Met some really sweet girls. Had precious little roommates. All in all, it was not awful... but something was off. I don't know how to put it without sounding like a Debbie Downer, but I just wasn't happy. It took a lot of soul searching (about 2 months worth) to figure out what was wrong/what needed to happen next. The one thing that I kept coming back to was
the kiddos. I missed teaching. Oh my goodness. If it's a surprise to you, don't worry, it was to me too.
See, all throughout my undergrad and thousands of dollars worth of education classes, I just told myself "I don't want to teach. I won't be happy in the classroom." Hahaha wrong! I realized that not one day had passed that I hadn't missed being with a class full of rambunctious and completely ridiculous little people. So where do I go from here? I was stuck... hence the 2 months time of thinking, and re-thinking, and over-thinking. Yeah, lots of thoughts floating around in this little mind of mine. I had never quit school before so I was navigating myself through some uncharted territories. Not gonna lie, some days in Waco were pretty miserable and it was tempting for me to quit on the spot, and just walk out... but other days were okay and then I was back to all the thinking. If I stayed and finished the 2 years I had left in the program and still hated it in the end, I couldn't even bring myself to think about the absurd amounts of debt I would be in. [It was a LOT]. I am babbling and so let me just make the long story short: I quit.
But I should clarify: by quit, I mean I finished out the semester, actually studied for my finals and didn't blow it off. I called financial aid and canceled my package for the spring, talked to a little exit counselor, & badda-bing badda-boom, no more school. It was a hard decision to make because it was difficult for me to get past the "quitting" stigma. In the end, I had to make myself understand that it was less of a quitting situation and more of a necessary career decision that would make me happier. That's what matters, right? Yeah.
Now, fasssst forward! What am I doing now? Well, friends,
never say never. Can't tell you how many times in my adolescent life I whined "I will
never come back to Palestine". And again I say, hahaha wrong! I came home, for lack of a better plan, and started the next chapter: the job hunt. Started filling out all kinds of applications for teaching jobs pretty much all over different areas of Texas. Had a job interview in the Tyler area that went really well and got a lot of encouragement from the principal and grade level team, but they went with someone who had a double certification in education and special ed. So, back to square one and where things get kind of funny and coincidental...
I emailed one of the administrators at good ole' Palestine ISD to ask about getting on the sub list. & another long story short: instead of a sub job, they offered me a teaching job.
I am now a 3rd and 5th grade Title I Math teacher at Story Elementary (which just so happens to be where I went to school). I pull 3 groups of 5th graders and 3 groups of 3rd graders a day to work on their math skills. We review, we refresh, we relearn. I work with these kiddos to hopefully instill a bit of confidence and get their little minds prepared for that dumb TAKS test.
And now that this has been the longest blog post ever, I am done. I apologize to those of you who are still reading at this point. So, that's the story. My little life update. There ya go :)
Another music post. Sorry for the monotony, but I love my music :)
