Just keep swimming

In the past two weeks, as previously stated in my last post, two WONDERFUL things happened in the world of Rachael:) For those of you keeping up on my "daily" blog posts, you already know my first piece of awesome news, that I will have the opportunity to be a Beta reader for Lauren Walker's book four in her series The Secret Watchers. This almost trumps my other fantastic news...almost ;)

Pretend for one second that I am that little duck climbing the curb in the picture above. I feel that this picture almost perfectly depicts what my struggle to find and get hired for a teaching job in Portland, OR over the past three years has been...but in a cute, little, fluffy duckling kind of way :)

 

I still to this day remember what a principal said to me back in 2006 or 2007, the years of interviews blend together...I was interviewing for a job teaching elementary (insert random grade level here) and at the end of the interview she left me with the, for lack of better words, blunt statement that I should expect to go on over 100 interviews before I get hired on. Um what??? I couldn't possibly have interviewed that bad was all I could think. I also, perhaps, thought some choice words. At the time I thought she was just being a bit harsh, but now that I look back over the last few years of my teaching position search, I realize that she was being realistic and honest. However blunt it seemed. I never, EVER expected finding a teaching job in my chosen city to be a difficult task. I figured that if I applied myself, studied hard, focused and was a truly passionate educator-all things that I indeed did during my college education that I would be hired immediately. In truth, my big problem was waiting one too many years to decide that I was ready to settle in Portland and start teaching. I opted for traveling and furthering my cultural education, which by the way I regret in no way, shape or form, and by the time I was back and ready to teach in Portland in 2009 the cutbacks were upon us, the need for educators slim to none. Life is all about choices after all and it seems silly to regret any that have helped to shape me into the person I am today.

That being said, I applied a month ago to an ad I found on Craigslist to teach preschool for the Oregon Child Development Coalition out in Hillsboro. After reading the posting and exploring the agency I honestly felt that I would be a great fit for this dual language education establishment with my background and work teaching younger ages. Two weeks had passed without a word then two weeks ago I got a call from the HR rep asking if I was still interested in coming in to interview for the position. This was a Thursday and I had Friday off so we set the interview for Friday morning. The HR rep was even kind enough to fill me in on more of what was expected as well as curriculum information, hours, pay rate, etc. I went into and came out of the interview with a positive vibe and an overall good feeling about the OCDC. I could actually work here :) They would let me know my Tuesday at the latest and sure enough, I got a call saying that they would like to proceed with me and offered me a full time teaching position assuming all my references and background check checked out! I was thrilled, but also had that familiar feeling of the rug about to be swept out from under me. It has been a long three years full of interviews and let downs after all. To make matters more tricky, the job starts March 31st and barely three weeks in on April 18th-25th Adam and I have our Bahamas trip scheduled. I let them know about the trip hoping and saying tiny prayers that they wouldn't call me back and say they changed their minds or that we would have to cancel our trip. To my surprise and excitement, everything worked out great! I gave my two weeks notice last Friday to my two families, a difficult, yet necessary thing, and will be starting with OCDC at the end of the month! I am super excited to get back in the classroom and teach!

 

There were certainly times where I got down on myself about not being able to get hired to teach, but in the end it came down to remembering the goals that I had set for myself, how hard I have worked, how much time I have dedicated and how much passion I have for educating kiddos that I realize all I really had to do was just keep swimming until I get where I need and want to be :) If you refuse to give up, you are bound to get where you want to be eventually right? ;)