A Year Makes a Big Difference

Last October, I left my part-time job with a local non-profit because … well, it was time. I felt a huge sense of peace about leaving, so it was not stressful. 

I was already a registered substitute teacher in our school district, so I let them know at my former high school (about 3 miles from our home) that I was available and pretty soon I was subbing 3-5 days a week. 

Now, I don’t think I’ll ever strike it rich working as a substitute teacher, but: 

1. It helps to pay the bills and 
2. I like high school kids. I know — it sounds crazy, doesn’t it? But I do! I think that most high school students are thoughtful, smart and funny. I like that they are still open to hearing what others have to say (for the most part) and I like that, even if it’s a small part, I get to build some relationships with high school kids. 
3. And — for the sake of honesty— let me admit that I am an absolute fool for Young Adult and Youth fiction. An absolute fool. (This will make sense later in the post).

But let’s be real here — I can’t be a sub for the rest of my life. I mean, I could but …Well, here’s the thing: I am married to a journalist and while Scott Pelly (CBS) might bring in the big bucks, he’s also working something like 15 hours a day and willing to travel to war zones, the average journalist is not rolling in it. And remember those two kids I have? Yeah. They want to play piano and soccer and tennis and golf and do gymnastics and ballet and tap and ride horses and … well, they want to do a lot of stuff. And I want them to, too. And I want us to be able to go on family vacations and I want us to be able to share with others. And while my husband’s check allows us to have a home and food and cars and insurance and I am so thankful that he has a job … well, we want a little more. 

And so back in the Spring we started talking about two options: I could go back to work full-time (if I could find a job) or I could go back to the school and complete my B.A. in Communications-Journalism. I wanted to go back to school — in fact, I had tried to go back two other times — but timing and finances were not in our favor, so it didn’t happen. But this time, by the Grace of God, things seemed to fall into place. I was re-admitted to the University in late July and the week that classes started, I found out that I was able to get financial aid. And to top it off, I was able to get the schedule I really wanted — all Tuesday and Thursday classes and home when my 3^rd Grader  is getting home from school.  

 It’s a lot, I’m not going to lie. I feel really old. Mostly because my classmates are — on average — 10 years younger than me. It doesn’t help that one of my professors (who holds a PhD) is younger than me by a couple of years. But so far, I’m an A and B student taking 12 hours of classes. The work is hard — this first semester back I have a class in Communications Research Methods that is absolutely kicking my tail (in fact, right now I should be in the library, reading through sources and working on my Lit Review – argh). But I’m hanging in there. I’m not missing classes, even though on cool rainy mornings it’s tempting to snuggle down deeper under the covers and sleep in. I’m doing my homework and all the reading. And trust me — there’s a lot of reading. Hopefully next semester I will be finished – barring any craziness in the GPA. And then what? 

Well, right now I would like to apply to a Master’s in Library Sciences program. That’s right — I want to be a LIBRARIAN. I want to stock shelves and come up with plans to get students more interested in reading. I want to help students find books they love and books and other sources that they need. 

I’m a 30-something who just figured out what she wants to do and the funny thing is, I knew when I was in 2^ndgrade that I wanted to be a librarian, but somewhere along the way that dream slipped to the wayside. But now it’s back and I’m working hard for that dream ... for me and for my family. And for high school kids who will need a little extra push.  

P.S. I am accepting tutoring help in Statistics. I love and am thankful for the Graphing Calculator, without which I would be lost. And if you want to proof read papers for me, just leave your e-mail in the comments section. And seriously, if you bothered to read this entire post, become a follower so that I know it was not time ill-spent to write this post.