I’m still a substitute teacher.
Sigh.
But the good news is that this continues to allow me to find interesting content to write about. Most recently, I overheard a student spout this wisdom:
“In life, you don’t get to retake a test.”
Now, there are a variety of directions I could go with this. I could look at how this should affect our education system, if our education system truly exists to prepare kids for the real world. I could lament all the decisions I’ve made in my life that have led me to this place. Or I can reflect on the fact that life has no retake button, but every day is a new chance to start a new trajectory. And it is the latter approach that I will take today.
Yes, it might seem that your education path was for naught. You can’t get hired in your field. Your resume isn’t compatible with the jobs you want (the jobs you need). It looks like you’re 30 years old and have to start over in your professional journey.
If this sounds familiar, I get it. It’s also me (I’m 34). I went to school for religion, never expecting to make any money in it, but I’ve hit nothing but walls in that pursuit. Now, I’ve been a substitute teacher for the past eight years, and even though I’m certified to teach English in Missouri, I can’t get hired.
I need to make a change though. It’s been a goal of mine for the past five years. But my family needs me to work for more than $15/hour, or else I’ll have to work 70 hours a week just to stay at the same level we’re currently at; our third baby arrives in just under a month.
A paid subscription would go a long way to helping our family in this season. I can’t promise consistent content, but I do stand by the content I do put out. (See the footnote at the bottom for my intentions for this blog moving forward.)
So it’d be easy to whine and mope and scream, “Poor me.” And believe me—it’s often hard not to. But I’m choosing to rise above.
I’m choosing to view each day as a new chance.
I’m choosing to prioritize writing1—my second earliest childhood dream (professional baseball is an impossibility).
I’m praying about the possibility of going back to school, maybe even starting over in a brand new field, and I’m trying to be happy about this reality.
You can do this too.
No, we can’t rewind time and start over, fresh out of high school. But we can choose to live in the present instead of the past—today. We can view today as a gift—that’s why they call it the present—and rejoice in it.
What does this look like for you?
In this with you!
Thanks for reading
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Notes and References
- My hope (and admittedly the arrival of baby will likely tangle with these plans) is to publish two pieces each week. One Bible/theology/church history post will come out Wednesday morning. And one additional post (in any number of categories) will release Friday afternoon. ↩︎
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