occupied!

Hallelujah for employment!

As we have been in this process, I have had a heck of a time figuring out what to do with myself for this upcoming school year.  Since finishing my teaching internship in January, I have been teaching in two local school districts, which has been just as exhausting as it has been exciting.  I have come to love substitute teaching far more than I thought I would, and I cannot even explain how much more confident I am in front of students.

HOWEVER!

Great as it can be, I am not always guaranteed a teaching position; some weeks it’s every day in a new class, and others I squeeze three in and am grateful.  I wanted to find something more secure for next school year, but with the Peace Corps our dominant focus these next few months, it made planning a challenge.

There is an awesome position at my favorite school in the whole wide world opening up this next school year.  Working with this staff and these students is honestly my dream goal.

And it can happen… someday.  But, that day is not today.

Lamentable decision though it was, I ultimately couldn’t turn in my application, because life is about taking chances.  Let me be nerdy English teacher for a moment and share part of my favorite poem in the whole wide stinking world from my lover Walt Whitman:

However sweet these laid-up stores, however convenient

this dwelling we cannot remain here,

However shelter’d this port and however calm these waters

we must not anchor here,

However welcome the hospitality that surrounds us we are

permitted to receive it but a little while.//

You but arrive at the city to which you were destin’d, you

hardly settle yourself before you are call’d

by an irresistible call to depart.

 

I absolutely, positively know I made the right decision, because as I continued to explore opportunities, I stumbled across an AmeriCorps position here in Eau Claire!

I applied, interviewed, and was offered a  position coordinating “special programs”  through the Marshfield Clinic AmeriCorps and the Boy Scouts of America.  As a former Cub Scout, I am beyond elated to put together so many of my passions.

The AmeriCorps is fabulous, as it is the domestic Peace Corps partner, and (I believe) will help make us more competitive as candidates.  In this job, I will (to the best of my knowledge) help coordinate volunteers for after school tutoring programs, find speakers and develop lesson plans, work on campus with at-risk students to find them college buddies, teach an after school program at the high school, help establish Boy Scout and Venturer activities… amongst other scattered projects.

AHHH!

I couldn’t be more pleased.  It is really a great position, and I am so truly lucky to have it.

I also found out this week that I will be working with summer school students in the mornings.  As this AmeriCorps position does not begin until the school year starts over in September, I will have something related to work on during these summer months; hot dog!

While everything seems to be up in the air until we find out more about departure and all that jazz, and as much as I want to become a part of the awesome teaching community in Eau Claire, I know we are making the right decisions.  Every opportunity has fallen b-e-a-utifully into place.  I feel so relieved!

Now, just on to conquer that Chicago interview…