Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The Plan You Don't Always See - Part 2

So...I had a job interview. By this point I was pretty jaded. I had, by this point, had 5-6 final round interviews. All of them ended with the phrase, "You were our second choice" and I was pretty discouraged. It was the end of the second week of July. I didn't have a place to live after the end of the month, so even if I didn't have a job, I was going to have to leave Texas and everything I was comfortable with in two weeks.

I am not the kind of person who is comfortable with flinging myself into the abyss, sight unseen. I like to know what's happening. I like my rut. I am afraid of "new." I am especially afraid of the Unknown Future. I felt like I had flung myself over a cliff with no parachute. I had never had anything like this happen to me. I only applied to one college. I only applied for one job during my last semester of college and I was hired in early May (very unusual for a teacher...). Facing rejection over and over and over and over was rough.

The interview was....ok. I didn't know how I felt. Usually after an interview I knew. It either had gone badly, or it had gone well. This time I didn't know. So I just forgot about it, as much as I could, and decided to drive up to Missouri to visit my sister. On the way there, in a gas station in Podunk, Arkansas, I got the phone call telling me I had gotten that job at the school I had wanted since April.

Fast forward two years. The economy is in the toilet and even people in "safe" professions like teaching are losing their jobs. School districts like Seattle and most of the surrounding districts are RIFing their teachers (Reduction In Force). Every day I hear about a new district that is cutting teachers who have less than three years in their district. Most of the time, I recognize the district name as a district I applied to.

But not mine.

My district has made money mistakes, but is having to cut fewer teachers than most districts in the area. Which means my job is safe. Some of those districts are the same ones I wanted to get into.

It's nice to be where I am. This has been a rough year, but this is still the job I would choose over almost any other job in the world (because let's face it, being paid to live in paradise and blog about it is slightly MORE perfect). I am glad I have a job, I love the people I work with, I have the most stable principals I have ever had, and I'm happy.

All this to say, there is always a plan. Always. Even when we can't see it, there is one. Someone is there guiding your steps if you have the faith to trust in Him. It does sometimes require a blind faith, but those seem to be the times when you get the most back. So....just trust.

Cheers.

2 comments:

Ronnica said...

I didn't know where you were going with yesterday's post, but this is really cool! I'm glad that you're where you want to be and that your job is secure.

Colleen said...

Love this! I remember how completely stressful all of it was for you at the time and you handled it all so well. Even when you chopped off part of your finger in the midst of quitting, packing, and phone interviewing. Oh, how far you have come!

Can't wait to come and see this awesome city you live in now!