After six years as a teacher, I've decided the time has come to shop for a new career. Not a new teaching job, mind you--my school is great--but a new line of work. I could go on forever about the positives and the negatives of being an educator, but the negatives mostly boil down to two things: parents (some of them, anyway) and the steaming pile of Bologna Sandwiches that employment in education has become (my favorite elementary school-appropriate euphemism, born of an inappropriate saying of same initials; i.e.: "I didn't have time to do my work."/"Bologna sandwich you didn't.").
Anyway, both negatives are spiraling out of control, as is my ability to speak like an adult.
Yes, I'll miss plenty of things about this profession, namely the students. They're funny and sweet, and every year I get attached to all of them. I keep all their photos in an album, and I love to hear from them long after they've left my class. And of course, I will miss those summers off.
But with that said, I'm looking for something new. I'm glad to have decided this in September, so that I have the rest of the school year to explore my choices. Besides, I just bought a new ABC teddy bear sweater, and I want to get some use out of it.
I've always liked and had a talent for writing (though you may disagree), so I believe that is where I'm headed next. The question is, where to begin?
My friends laughed when I told them this, but I'll probably begin by submitting stories to the likes of Highlights magazine. In fourth grade, we teach the children to write what they know. At this time, what do I know better than children? I spend 40 hours a week with them.
I'd also like to begin writing occasionally for local periodicals like Community Impact or The Round Rock Leader. I'm beginning to research how to get involved with that. Eventually, I think I would like a full-time, entry-level position with a newspaper. (Perhaps I'll be a television reporter, even, so that I have an excuse to go down to the seawall in the middle of a hurricane.)
And finally, I believe I might like to write books. I certainly would like to write children's books, and perhaps a book for adults if ever I had a good idea for one. This job would provide me a lot of flexibility, and I don't believe I'd miss those summers off so much after all.
Another broad interest of mine is employment with a charitable organization, perhaps working abroad.
Still, I'm open to suggestions from others about careers that they think I might enjoy, as well as advice for entering a career in writing. Anybody?
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My first two jobs were at newspapers. First, at the PA News (working an old timey switchboard where I disconnected a caller for Bob West!) and then made a huge career move (ha) to the Beaumont Enterprise (& Journal back then). Besides taking complaints from really old people who didn't get their newspaper thrown at exactly the time they woke up and their coffee was brewing, I wrote obituaries! The most memorable day though was when a murderer (Linda Mae Burnett) walked in my office with her attorney to talk to one of the reporters and I was the only one in the office!!! I think I was saying something like Holy Sandwich! Anyways...this is about YOUR career... Working for a newspaper can be exciting. You might like it. If you don't, try something else. I'm afraid you'd have to eat alot of Bologna Sandwiches on what they'd pay though....Lisa
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