There are days when I feel really disappointed about where things have sort of ended up for me career wise. I enjoy teaching but I actually would also like to pay off our house and have money to travel and enjoy my life post child rearing (it is too scary to type out the word ‘retirement’). I often reflect that I wish I wasn’t such a dumbass and had done my masters in environmental science instead of biology (or at least at some point during the process would have bothered to ask someone, anyone, ‘what does one do with a masters in biology?’) or gone to med school or applied to a better program and grunted out a PhD. So, for now I’m back to being a lowly adjunct and wondering if I will have it in me to start over at the bottom of the barrel when the girls start school as a high school teacher. But, I need a retirement of my own. That is the reality of my situation and at least I have a couple of years more to try and figure it out. And there are days like today when I love that I’m a teacher. I went down to Breaking the Silence rally downtown this evening with the family (it is an event coordinated with the Day of Silence which ‘brings attention to the bullying, harrassment, and downright homophobia Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and their Allies face’ ; sponsored by the LBGT youth coalition). Anyway, I went because a friend had posted about it on facebook and then one of my very, very favorite students was talking about how he coordinated it along with 3 friends in class on Thursday. It was great being there and feeling all the positive energy for a change (positive in terms of social activism in general in my conservative Southern city) and my student was very excited to see me (he screamed and gave me a hug and then said “I’m breaking the silence” and held up his fist). It was awesome. And, then afterward me and the girls and the handyman walked around the dogwood arts festival downtown and listened to some hippie bluegrass and ran into some old friends who also have a VW van so we got to gripe about the lack of mechanics and the lights not always working (and no AC) and why we all really should probably just sell the damn things. Anyway, all in all it was a good day and it made me feel like I’m a part of something positive in our community, even if just a small part.
I’m pretty sure there is no one left reading this blog but I just really felt like writing about it.
3 Comments
April 18, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Sounds like a nice family outing. I love those!
April 19, 2009 at 5:22 pm
What a great day!
April 20, 2009 at 12:51 pm
If you’d taken a different career path, you may not have had this wonderful day. Hooray for good days!