New Paths

 

You'll look up and down streets.  Look 'em over with care.  About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there."  With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street.

And you may not find any you want to go down.  In that case, of course, you'll head straight out of town.

- Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You'll Go!

For the first time in twenty six years, I am not prepping for a new school year.  My former colleagues are.  My youngest sister is.  But... not me.  I resigned from teaching last year.  It wasn't an easy choice, but I've come to terms with it as best I can.  

I took some time to rest and heal... it's not easy to just leave a job, particularly one that consumes so much of your time and spirit the way teaching does.  When I'd found some inner peace and balance, it was time to think about next steps.  Over the summer, I decided to seek employment in a new district.  But no district so far has wanted a teacher with twenty six year of experience... new college grads are so much less expensive, it seems.

Now I'm not so sure what road I want to go down.  Like the character in Oh, The Places You'll Go!, I can see plenty of streets that make me say, "I don't choose to go there."  Retail?  Not a chance.  Temp work in an office?  No, thank you.  Substitute teaching pays less than minimum wage, when you break it down, and even long term subbing, a more stable income, is not really an option I want to pursue.  The remaining choice, it seems, is to head "straight out of town."  

I don't feel that this means physically relocating... that wouldn't be right for either me or my family.  It's more metaphor.  I need to break out of what I've BEEN doing and seek a path I haven't tried before.

But what that is, at the moment, I just don't know.