Saturday, July 21, 2007
 | Current mood:  contemplative Category: Life Its funny, in the last five years I have accomplished more than I ever really expected. I finally went back to school put my nose to the grindstone and finished my bachelor's degree-in a year thank you very much and with a 3.8 gpa to top it off! Then, on an act of faith I moved to Chicago with friends. I didn't have a job lined up, but knew I needed to be in Chicago. Some of you think it was for Andy but it wasn't. I fell in love with Chicago when I did Mission Year with Lawndale Community Church from 1999-2000 and always wanted to go back and work in Chicago Public Schools. In case you didn't know, CPS (Chicago Public Schools) are a mess...more on that later. Andy was a huge motivating factor but not the reason. So anyway, I moved here without a job and when the going got tough, I got a call about a job. I began my career in Education as a teacher's assistant for Kindergarden class at a private christian school in the inner city. Okay okay stop laughing. Yes, I can do the kindergarden thing and do it very well thank you. I loved my kids. One of my favorite moments is when Phillip came up to me one morning and gave me a great big hug, "Ms. Wymore you smell sooooo good. You smell just like fruit loops!" Nothing beats a kindergardener's hug. But, that job was a stepping stone to becoming a teacher-after that gig I applied to and got accepted to a Master's of Arts in teaching program through the Academy for Urban School Leadership and National Louis University. If you want the 411 on the program, go to www.ausl-chicago.org. I got paid to get my master's degree and learn to be a teacher. I worked 80 or more hours a week-in the classroom full time during the day, in class three evenings a week, and studying, lesson planning, grading papers and sleeping the rest. That led to my graduation in June of 2006-with a 4.0 gpa thank you very much :). Then, I got a job at my first school-Marconi-teaching 8th grade. What a year...Shakespeare, writing...math...so much....but the point of this blog is reflecting on transitions, so I won't go into that. Well, in june I moved out of that classroom and am now looking for a new job-budget cuts cost me my position...wooo hooo gotta love insane CPS. WHEW and that is only half of it...let me summarize-in the last five years I have had five jobs, lived in five different places, and I am tired. I am tired of transitions. My deepest desire right now is to get placed in a school where I can be long term...like ten years or more. And to stay put in my apartment until I can buy a house. Transitions are exhausting. I have no sense of permanence. I am a nomad seeking to put down roots. Do I regret the journey I have taken? NO. NO NO NO a thousand times no. I am deeply grateful for every step of the way that led me to where I am now. I am hoping and praying that those steps, all that hard work and investment, will pay off in the form of permanence. I am ready to committ...to a career, a community and this phase of my life. I am hoping that my 30's are the exact opposite of my 20's. I classify my 20's as my nomadic adventure. I want my 30's to be my settled content learning in one place...and that idea of permanance scares me because it is so foreign to me. Living life means living through transitions...hopefully this transition I am in midst of right now will be my last...at least for a whille :) |
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