New beginning

Hmm… How should I start this? I’m not sure. Maybe I’ll just start writing and see what happens. Perhaps I’ll start with the blog title and the first two posts.

I was going to get away from the “between this and that” themes and title this blog “New Beginning(s)”. But I suddenly had the notion (after being a bit of a recluse) that if anyone were to ask me how I was doing, I would answer, “Somewhere between the worst I’ve ever been and the best I ever will be.” And, well, with the “between” in there, that just had Season 3 title written all over it. And so I made “New beginning” the title for this post…but not the first post because I wanted to bridge the last season with this one.

So, yeah. Well, to catch you up…my plans for becoming an international student advisor have pretty much come to an end. I’ve serendipitously fallen into the path of becoming a teacher. Apparently there is a nationwide shortage of biology and math (and ESL, and…well a bunch of the sciences) teachers in the high schools. This includes Seattle…the place I long to live.

I think most of you reading this already know the story. I was applying for Costco and, while filling out the application, just didn’t see myself working there. There were a lot of things that just kept bringing me back to the idea of teaching. I’d known about the possibility of combining my biology degree with my teaching experience overseas since I returned from Japan in ’05. But at the time, teaching was more a means of traveling than something I saw myself doing for a living. And…well, maybe this would be a better story to tell if I actually become a teacher.

Right. So the bulk of this season will be about the journey to getting accepted into the teaching program that starts this summer. I’ve checked with the nearby universities as well as the Education Standards Board of Washington and I’m apparently qualified. So that’s the direction I’m headed.

The main challenge for me here is…well, the tests to get in. But on the larger scale, it’s trusting what other people see in me rather than trusting entirely what I see in myself.

Ok. Welcome to Season 3 of the Killdeer Chronicles.