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Tuesday, June 18, 2013

What I want to be when I grow up

If you follow my blog at all you have noticed a recurring theme.  The theme is that I don't know what I want to be when I grow up.  I have my bachelor's degree and have worked in the school systems for years.  While I liked my jobs, I always thought about that next step in my career.  I just wasn't sure what that next step was.

This past winter I thought I had figured it all out.  I applied and was accepted into the University of Wisconsin's School of Social Work for my masters degree.   When I got the acceptance letter, I was giddy with excitement.  Since that day, I have gone through a lot of emotions with the whole process.  For starters, even getting anything done at the university seemed to take quite a long time.  I soon began             to realize that I really was a very small fish in a large pond.  Combined with that, as the school year ended, I started to feel nostalgic and sad.  On the very last day of school, one of my students ran back and gave me a hug goodbye.  That was significant because all year this kid had yelled and complained that I was pushing him too far.  I almost cried when he did that gesture.

Before beginning my masters, I had to complete a statistics class.  It was supposed to start today.  Again, as time came, I started to think more and more about going back to school.  I realized that I'd be gone all day and when I got home I'd be studying.    The university is about an hour from me, so that's a lot of travel time.  I knew it'd only be for two years, but lately the Hubs and I have really got along and as a family we've enjoyed spending time together.  I realized that as much as I wanted to be a social worker (and I do!) I wanted to be around my family more.  I didnt want to miss special events in my children's lives and I wanted to be able to be there for them and Hubs.

So tonight I went online and canceled my class and withdrew from this semester.  That means no social work program in the fall since I needed the stats class.   A large part of me is sad, I'm not going to lie.  I know that at some point in the future I may wonder "what if" and regret not going to school.  However, a bigger part of me is relieved.  I'm also excited.  I have always treated my teaching jobs as just that....jobs.  Now I'm going to start treating it as a career.


Saturday, June 8, 2013

Still going and it's June

For whatever reason, the school district I work at and my kids attend is going one whole week longer than everyone else in the counties around us.

What. The. Hell.

I'm okay with the fact that by being in Wisconsin we go longer than other states.  I have friends in Colorado who were done with school 3 weeks ago.  The weather up here in the Upper Midwest sucks in the spring and this year has been especially wet and nasty, so it's not like I've missed out on a ton of beach days by working.  But knowing that we are one of the last schools to get out for summer.....torture.

It doesn't help that I have colleagues who happily changed their facebook statuses on Friday at 3:00 o'clock on the dot.  Statuses such as "School's out for the summer", "FREEDOM" and "Closed for business" filled up my newsfeed all afternoon.  One ex co-worker even commented to me how she would be thinking of me all this next week as she laid on the beach and sipped a beverage.  Darn her!  Meanwhile I will be stuck working the final week and I'm sure that this week is going to crawl by.

So for all you people whose kids have been out of school for weeks already, I hope you are enjoying yourselves and your kids because some of us are still working!