Greener Pastures.

Today was my last day at my terrible-awful-no-good-very-bad job. I can't believe I'm done! It hasn't sunk in yet. It has been a long and miserable 4 months of work and I am more than happy to be done with it. And the even better news is that I finally landed my first ever full time teaching job and I start next Thursday!

It was a whirlwind of a week in regards to my professional life. My interview was at 12:30pm on Monday -- I chose not to tell anyone at my school why I was going to be late for work. I thought the interview went pretty well but left feeling slightly discouraged. It's totally normal to spend the entire day after an interview over-analyzing your responses and coming up with all kinds of clever things you should have said but I was also worried about the fact that they seemed to be interviewing so many candidates. I figured if there were that many people in the running, I was sure to be on the lower end in terms of professional teaching experience.

I arrived at work later that afternoon feeling somewhat discouraged, completely exhausted from our crazy weekend, and generally grumpy about my job. It was a normal day at work, which means not-so-good, and I had pretty much resolved that I was just going to quit even without having something else lined up.

And then I realized I had a voicemail.

It was the principal who had interviewed me less than four hours earlier calling to say that she really enjoyed meeting with me, she had contacted my references -- who all had wonderful things to say about me -- and after a long day of interviews they really felt that I was the candidate God was leading them to choose for this position. I was shocked!!! And so SO excited!

I called Steven and my mom and quickly shared the news with my fellow after-school teachers. At 6 o'clock I went straight to my boss and told her I had accepted a new job and would be leaving at the end of the month. Ah! Such a good feeling! And the crazy thing is, I hardly knew anything about the job I had just accepted. I didn't know what the pay would be, whether or not I would get a spring break, when summer vacation starts, if I would have any benefits etc. etc. etc. Here's what I did know: full time job, classroom teacher, Christian school. Done, done and done. Everything I've wanted in a job (full-time teacher) and after my slightly traumatic experience in my most recent job I am ecstatic about the idea of working in a school where my faith is the common denominator.

By noon on Tuesday I had signed the contract and toured the school. I will be teaching 5th and 6th grade at a small Lutheran school in Burien - I have three 5th grade students and two 6th grade students. Five students!! How cool is that? It is definitely a pay raise from my last job, the commute is about 10 miles shorter (round trip), I still get the same week off for spring break PLUS Good Friday, school gets out for the summer on June 15th, and if I'm interested, I'll be the first candidate considered to stay on in the position for next year. As of right now my official title is "Long-Term Substitute" so I guess I haven't fully arrived as "Teacher" but it's pretty darn close and it's the first time I've ever run my very own classroom.

I had planned to stay at my other job until the middle of next week but I got an e-mail from my boss early this morning saying she had decided that today would be my last day. That was really difficult for me in more ways than I'm going to describe right now. I will say that I was hurt by it and I felt like I got cheated out of the "closure" I had been looking forward to. I had planned to bring treats and write thank you cards and do something fun with the kids but there just wasn't time for that. It was really tough saying goodbye to all of my students today. Some of them made me cute little cards and gave me big hugs and told me I'm their favorite and asked me to come back and visit and one of the students even said "Well can't you just tell them you aren't going?" and she begged me not to go to the new job. It was really sweet. I know this new job is going to be really good for me though so I didn't let myself get too terribly sad about the whole thing.

Another thing Steven and I are really excited for with the new job is that I should be home by 4:30pm everyday. That's almost 3 hours earlier than with my old job! I'll have time to make dinner again and instead of just eating and watching an episode of Psych and going to bed, we'll actually have full evenings to spend with each other! It's just all so good. I know it's going to be a great experience and I hope I enjoy it as much as I think I'm going to.

While we're sharing good news, I should also tell you that I have a really fun job lined up for the summer. I interviewed for this one a couple of weeks ago and got it pretty much right away as well. I will be working at a summer camp in Bellevue. The camp is only four weeks long (so I still get one month off) and I get to spend the whole time taking middle schoolers on field trips. We'll be going to Wild Waves, the zoo, the beach, baseball games, into Seattle to Ride the Duck, to the lake for kayaking lessons, and on and on. I think it's going to be a blast!

I feel like I've finally turned a corner and things are starting to fall into place in this area of my life. It is spring time and the sun is finally starting to shine. It would appear my winter has ended. No more subbing or tutoring or after-school program directing. I get to work in a place where I will be welcomed, loved, supported, affirmed and prayed for. Just the thought of it makes me feel peaceful. Thank God for spring time!