Changing Professions

I have seen and heard and known for many years now that life today is different than even 50 years ago. I'm speaking in relation to careers. It is very common for many people to change careers multiple times. In teaching, there are many, many people that leave the profession after 5. I knew of this statistic when I was in school to become a teacher. I almost didn't make it to one. As a junior I was burnt out and weary and I hadn't really started yet. I also had just finished working an incredible summer at Crosspoint. I had spent the summer investing into the lives for 4-6th grade students and pouring out Christ's love for them. I loved sharing the name of Jesus. I knew I enjoyed it and wanted to be involved with that and so I considered the Journeyman program. I still wonder if I followed my own desires or God's during my last few years of school. Either way, I KNOW that God has used the last 5 years to mold me, to shape me, to teach me, to stretch me, and to lead me to where I'm going in the next few months and years.

So after a trip to Korea and lots of research, I stepped out in faith and signed a contract to go to International Christian School of Hong Kong. Even though there are times I ponder if I was following God, I know that I wanted to me and that I was trusting Him through the difficult transitions that followed. I KNOW that He never left me and that He was surrounded me in that time. I made it to one year of teaching. And then two. And then three.

After three, I was missing my family, I was weary, and I wanted a change. I followed God's lead and moved to Athens. I continued to teach and struggled through year 4. It was a beast of a year and one that moved me closer and closer to that statistic: people that leave the profession in 5 years or less.

Now, I'm at the end of year 5. I will be part of that statistic. I will leave teaching after this year. God has called me somewhere else. I am excited about taking this new step of faith and following God in changing professions. I changing to being a laborer for Christ.

It will be difficult. It will be sad. It will be hard. It will be a joy. It will be amazing. I'm excited. I'm ready to move past teaching and onto seminary in the fall (with another joyous summer at Fuge in between).

Today though, I'm thinking back on my last 5 years. I'm thinking about those things that I will miss about teaching and those things that I definitely will not! I might make a more official list like I did when I left Hong Kong but for now I'm just going to list a few.

I will miss...
- the joy of students actually getting it
- listening to students discuss as topic and they work to figure out a solution or an answer or just to discuss it
- watching students read and enjoy themselves
- spending time relearning the material. I love to learn and have enjoyed relearning all those things I teach
-my colleagues (both in Hong Kong and Athens)
- the school schedule (but I'll be on it for at least 2 more years)

I will not miss...
-grading
-lesson planning
-angry parents
-attitudes from students
-dealing with behavior issues


To be honest, I thought there would be more things that I would not miss and there probably are but those are so big and huge. Those 5 things take up probably 4/5 of the time that I put towards teaching, especially teaching in Athens. I rarely can take time to work with students and help them learn without in the middle and over several times having to deal with attitude and behavior.

It has been painful at times for me to realize what my fourth graders know. The poverty and violence and other painful situations that they experience at home break my heart. I couldn't handle a lot of what they go through as an adult and they are having to deal with it as children. I also struggle when I see kids that are going down roads that are full of evil and struggles in their lives and try as I might I don't seem to be helping them step off that road. When I consider the futures of some of my students, I see prison, teenage pregnancy, and drug abuse. I don't want to, I pray that somehow, someway,they will change the decisions they are making in their lives so that isn't their story. I pray and hope that these students will know of a life where they are productive and active citizens with families that they love and care for. I pray and hope that they set goals and accomplish them. There is such a need in the community and the lives of the students that I work with. I pray that their need is met.

However, in all of this I know that God is calling me to meet another need. To go to another group of people and to meet their spiritual need. I am excited and anxious about this. So in this time, in this last 4 days of teaching, I have a lot of bittersweet emotions. I'm excited about leaving but I will miss many things. This has been my life for 5 years but really longer. I have desired to be a teacher since I was about 5. It's odd to realize that I will be part of that large group that move on to another profession to another job in 5 years or less. At least for me I have the peace and joy that comes when following in God's will for your life. I KNOW that this is His desire for me.
-