"Any craic?". I've been asked this question 5 times in the last 12 hours! Sometimes it makes me feel bad because the answer is usually "nope" or "not really" or "well, I changed my shampoo and I like it"! Maybe if I was living a big city, corporate lifesyle, things would be different and my blog would be more of an interesting read. But I don't live big city life. In fact, I live in a pretty regular suburban town and teach chemistry in a country school. I go to church on a Sunday. I try to eat right and exercise regularly. I try to be thankful everyday and only complain in the company of my very closest friends. It's not an exciting life but it's a happy one most of the time.
But I do have some news! After just 2 months in my new job, which I utterly love, I have been asked to lead a student team to India next summer. It started in September with an email and its all snowballed very quickly from there. But going into half term, I've said yes, I've picked my team, consent forms are signed and deposits are down. And I have a really great feeling about it.
When I traveled home from Vancouver nearly 5 years ago, the one thing I told myself was 'no matter what, don't lose what you found'. My experiences living and working in Canada molded my personality, my identity, my confidence and much of how my life has turned out since then.
I found out that I love to travel, that I love not for profit work and that I'm good at it. I found out how much I loved God and how much He loves me. I discovered how hard I can work, the importance of resilience and that there are options outside of getting married and settling down after university. I discovered who my truest friends were and made new friends who, although I don't get to see them very often at all, I will forever share some very funny, very special memories with.
But when I came home, things didn't work themselves out very quickly. I found it really difficult to settle. It was slow and boring and uncomfortable and there didn't seem to be any opportunities. I tried to go back to Vancouver, only to be devastated when it fell through last minute. I waitress-ed for a bit and the coffee was good but I was hardly changing the world. I tried similar after school programs here at home and it was fun but it wasn't quite hitting the spot. So I got myself back on track with teacher training and things began to shift slowly but to succeed in teaching here in NI, I had to stay focused, keep my feet on the ground literally and it all felt like lots of perseverance and slow results.
But finally, I have reached a point in my early career where I can combine my teaching with my love of travel and non-profit project. As I get ready to embark on fundraising and team building and all those things, it feels like there might have been a framework in place. I just couldn't always see it on a day to day basis. My job still isn't permanent, and there are still many aspects of life I'm working on but I wanted 2013 to be a game changing year and it just might be. Not an epic game, but a winning game all the same.
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