last week, i started a new job.
i’ve written in the past about how unhappy i was in my previous line of work and how i gave myself a month, after finishing grad school, to just relax and detox before starting my job search in earnest. as i mentioned before, though that month was glorious, there were moments when anxiety about my future would bubble up and i would find myself looking for jobs in a mild state of panic with no aim and no success. it wasn’t completely dejecting, because i knew that if worse came to worse, i could work at starbucks while i figured out what i wanted to do next (a process i imagined would probably take longer than a few months). however, the fact that i wasn’t finding a lot that i was particularly excited about was discouraging. the options just didn’t seem great, and i wasn’t sure how much better they would get.
but then a present dropped out of the sky.
at the end of that first month, i got an email from a friend of mine from college who’s now the college pastor at a large church in my area. knowing that i was looking for work and that i have previous experience working with high schoolers, he wrote that there was an open position at his church to mentor high schoolers and to coordinate a bunch of their activities, and he asked if i would be interested.
the email came completely out of left field. i had never considered working at a church, but the job seemed… well, kind of perfect. i loved working with high schoolers before grad school — they were kind of the reason i studied what i did, though i realized much later that what i was studying wasn’t exactly what i wanted to be doing — and even though i wanted a career change, i still wanted to work with students. the details of the job were also pretty sweet: it was a 30-hour-a-week gig with full benefits, which would give me time to teach adjunct at my alma mater (something i already had lined up) and to pursue some other things on the side; it was only a few miles away from my place; and the team, which included both my college friend and another friend from grad school, was by all accounts fantastic.
not that i didn’t have any hangups. the job was perfect for me, but i was a little leery of the fact that it was at a church. i’ve gone to church for about half my life and i’m a big fan of it, but i was concerned that working at a church would tarnish my street cred in the rest of the world, which is probably why i had never considered working at one in the first place. (then again, i couldn’t think of another context in which i could get paid to mentor high schoolers.) and then there was the issue of… well, ego, i guess. while it was amazing, again, that i could get paid at all to mentor high schoolers, and the pay would be pretty much on par with what my classmates are making at their post-docs, it wasn’t a lot compared to what most of my other friends are making, and it’s around half of what my classmates will be making in a year or so. and there was a tiny, snotty part of myself that i didn’t know existed that whispered, “you have a phd, liz. really?” i thought my ego was something i had tamed, given that i was willing to work at starbucks and i vowed to never let anyone call me “doctor.” but apparently, it was still alive and kicking.
at the end of the day, though, my qualms were small compared to the fact that this was actually job that seemed well-suited for me, that i was actually excited about, and that was logistically pretty perfect — nothing to sneeze at, given how discouraging my brief moments of job searching had been. so, over the next two months, they formally posted the position, i applied, they interviewed me, and they hired me. (even the pace of the process was a gift; even though i knew about the job a month into my unemployment, i still got an additional 2 months of freedom. fabulous.)
so i started last week. so far, so good — everyone has been super-nice, from the staff to the students, and my boss is super-organized and easygoing and supportive. it’s a gift to go into a pleasant, laid-back work environment, and the fact that it’s only a few miles away and i can roll in at 9 and leave at 3 is icing on the cake. the transition has gone probably about as well as it could. still, it’s a bit of an adjustment — i have a lot of observing and learning to do, i have to meet about a thousand people in a next few months, and i’m still getting used to the fact that i work for a church that has a vpn and a full-time, multi-person IT department. but as of now, i’m happy. no regrets about changing course — just gratitude for how amazingly well things have fallen into place.
aimee
liz! i was so happy for u when i heard this from chris!
sounds like an AWESOME fit for u… at least for now.. what a gift!
i also had a present drop out of the sky. i was battling the same feelings u were feeling, with about 6 months of unemployment. the first 3 months were “productive” in that i applied to, received acceptances from, and visited a number of different schools for plans of further education. something in me felt all wrong about it, though, so i declined and deferred those acceptances. i even got 2 long-term sub teaching job interviews and offers right away after i made that decision, and still couldn’t get myself to accept. my dog died during that time and i wasn’t ready. when things seemed to get more and more hopeless, i also had a grad school friend call out of the blue to tell me a new full-time position had opened up at her school because of grant money. i also started last week, and the timing couldn’t have been better. the position has the benefits of a full-time teaching position without the stress, since i’m an interventionist, so i know i will still have energy to look into what might be next for me! AND i also get to carpool and work with my dear friend every day and work with the youngest kids, K-2nd (i’ve always worked with older kids), who i also ADORE.. and look forward to being able to see their glowing faces everyday and receive their lice-infested (but love HUNGRY) hugs!!
God is so good to us, ain’t He? He always reminds us He’s got a hold on the reins! i’m happy for both you and me..
btw, i’m still really sad i haven’t been able to see that elmo movie yet..