13 First Days
My 13 First Days of school as a teacher have always been exhausting, but consistently positively charged. More recently, I’ve been feeling like it’s time for me to move on, to a third career.
In light of “Back to School,” this piece rolled off my keyboard this week…
The fuss, hustle, and excitement of the first day of school has a type of energy rarely matched. That electricity ignites kids out of bed early that morning. It encircles them on the way to school, into the parking lot, through the gates, into the quad, throughout the halls, and they indisputably bring it with them into my classroom. I can actually feel a heightened jovial feeling radiating from the students on the first day of class. Attitudes are always agreeable the first day, never negative, for that starts on day two. On the first day high school students are curiously apprehensive. They exude an anxious yet confident aura. My 13 First Days of school as a teacher have always been exhausting, but consistently positively charged.
My Career in Education: a round peg in a round hole
Teaching was not always an end-goal for me, yet I have a sound reason for choosing this path as a second career. My route to teaching started in the spring of 2009 when my world flipped upside down and sideways. My then husband and I ended our 13.75 year marriage and split ways with our business. We undertook the privilege of amicably co-parenting three beautiful children as we each picked up the pieces of our personal crumbled lives. (More to come on that in a future blog.) Fourteen years later I am heading into my 13th year as a high school teacher. I absolutely love the school I’ve been at for 10 years and I can’t beat the schedule - it’s what keeps me in this career. But more recently, I’ve been feeling like it’s time for me to move on.
Although it’s been a good fit, I continue to question my decision of enlisting in the education industry. (Yes, it’s an industry, I’ll debate…ha!) After running our small record label together for our entire young marriage, my ex husband and I officially divorced in the spring of 2009. What I had known for the past 13.75 years had changed, and changed again, and then changed again and again. That life had consisted of fast paced, long days, late nights, jet set style, with new adventures at every sunrise. As I pieced together a plan to move forward for me and my children, my new life consisted of survival. Period. Our separation and divorce paralleled the U.S. housing market crash and unfortunately we chose to split ways in our marriage and our business perhaps in the worst financial time of our young lives to do so.
Although running the record label was impressive and stimulating, the lifestyle of constant uncertainty and new daily developments had left me starving for stability and consistency. Safety and security were essential for me to move forward and survive on my own with my three children. In 2009 new hires in marketing were at a complete standstill due to the recession - no one in the country was spending money and the economy was in the gutter. I applied for dozens of marketing positions only to find that although jobs were posted, they weren’t really hiring at all. Recognizing I needed a career shift from marketing, I considered the idea of going to law school. This wasn’t the first time I’d toyed with this idea. A few years before my divorce, I had explored taking the LSAT and looked into applying for law school, but I did not move on it at that time. Now alone with three kids in tow, starting a new career in law seemed incredibly overwhelming. As I meditated and prayed over it, I got a strange feeling that if I went to law school and pursued that career, I would not know my children when I came out the other end 15 years later. The feeling was intensely real and telling. Only I could know it was my truth.
Around this same time when I was trying to figure out which path to take to secure my future, a friend of mine gave me the idea of becoming a Special Education teacher. He said, “You’ll always have a job.” That statement was deeply enticing because it had been a long hard year on my own with three children. Going for a career in education would put me on the same schedule as my children with the possibility of working at a school they attended. I meditated and prayed over this choice as well. As you would guess, I was served an acutely distinct prayerful answer that I would have a strong relationship with my children when they were adults if I chose the path of education. Choosing my children was the only way for me. The only answer, they have always been my number one. So from that time forth, I became a teacher in the making.
Choosing my children was the only way for me….they have always been my number one.
13 First Days of School, Will There Be More?
I’m very good at what I do and I’ve had a beautiful teaching career. I maintain a fabulous rapport with students and cultivate mutual respect in my classroom. I’ve got great classroom management and I pride myself on challenging my kids just enough. I myself am teachable and I yearn to learn new programs and technology that enhance my classroom programs. I started out as a Special Education teacher and have moved into teaching business in high school. My project based program now graduates an average of 49 students per year with 9 college credits in business. I could not be any more proud of these students and what I have hopefully contributed to their futures.
My biggest inner struggle of choosing to follow God’s prompting to enter the career of teaching is the feeling that I am less. Less as a professional. Less career accolades or celebrated accomplishments than peers in other industries. We teachers hang on to the bottom rung of the educated white collar ladder as the world continues to put us down, berate us, and show us that we are not worthy of being compensated the same as those with our same skill/ability. I knew the salary going in, but honestly people talk to us differently - as though we are beneath them. I can attest because I spent years in a different industry and I have experienced a sharp difference. It’s an internal battle I continually put aside everyday and focus on seeking the joys of my choice of career.
During my first official month of teaching in fall of 2011 I was struggling financially. I became really angry with God. I basically reminded him that I had leaned into this prayerful answer of pursuing education as a career. I still was not able to fully put food on my table and roof over my head for me and three children with my teaching salary. I prayed, in a very angry tone, one night asking why we teachers could not be paid more. I wanted to know and I wanted to know now. I went to bed angry and I felt let down. The next morning after struggling to get my small children to their school and arrive at work on time, I was walking through the parking lot with a huge tote bag over my shoulder. I heard a voice. A very clear voice. As if someone was walking right behind me. I heard, “If teachers were paid more, it would attract the wrong type of person to work with children.” A whoosh came over me. I immediately had my answer. It was bigger than me. I was fine and my children would be fine. It was a protection for children everywhere. I took a giant figurative step back and realized, my problems are small and I am being taken care of. God is protecting children.
How fortunate I have been to be placed in the role of protecting children. We are directed by our school district to look for signs of abuse and distress. We refer children in need to programs to help them - there are many assistance resources. We are and try to be a haven. It’s such an honor.
What I’ve Gleaned from My Second Career
Biggest wins: I do in fact have a fantastic relationship with my own children 13 years after jumping into this career. I’ve had time with them. Time at their high school where I teach, behind the scenes at their functions, rides to school together, and summers - ah summers. I get to spend this year with my son in my 3rd year business management first period class. He’s a confident kid and doesn’t seem to mind (so he tells me). He's already informed me that it’s a good way to start his day, “in a chill class,” ha ha. It’s the first time I’ve ever actually had one of my own children in class and it’s perfect timing.
Other wins: Incredible colleagues who have developed into genuine friends, appreciative parents, and thankful students (they realize later…). It’s a beautiful community at our school. I’ve had stability and peace of mind, I do “always have a job” with a steady income and benefits for my family. And when I move on to my next career, I will bring all of the grit, compassion, learned patience, thick skin, and experience with me.
I’ve had 13 First Days of school as a teacher. As I head into my Second Half, who knows how many more first days of school I will have.
💙Carami
Let’s interact: Credible sources on Google claim that the average person will switch careers 3-7 times over their working lives. A good amount of us in our Second Half will be that statistic who “switched careers 3-7 times over our working lives.” Why? Why do we switch? Please leave a comment below. *You must be logged into the Substack website or app for your comment to appear.
I've known you a very long time. This insert into the first 13 days was a great read. Enjoyed learning about the path of life people take. . Thank you for sharing
Amazing! The first 13 days… The first 30 days are always a revolution! Thank you for sharing.💜