Yesterday evening, my sister texted me to say that she is hoping to join the National Guard. I wasn’t sure how to respond. I wasn’t upset, just curious. I asked her how she started thinking about that, and I found myself wanting, more than anything, to be able to hug her. She is graduating high school this year and has been accepted to her college of choice. While her 18th birthday is still a little over one month away, I can’t pretend she’s a little girl anymore. She has gotten her first jobs and will soon enough memorize her social security number from having to fill out numerous forms, if she hasn’t already. Her choice of major is Vet-Tech, and I have no doubt she will succeed in whatever she puts her mind to. All of this made me start to think yet again about my life after student teaching is over. My sister is growing up and moving into the next phase of her life and, soon, so will I.
In three weeks, I will be done working under my mentor teacher, and I will have to say farewell to the students I have come to enjoy seeing every day. My trip home will be long but, hopefully, uneventful. I will arrive, safe and sound, just in time for my 23rd birthday and Christmas. Following the holiday, I will begin working at Bath and Body Works, a job I have held on and off for the past year. What comes next will depend on me. I have the choice of staying home to work a retail job and sub, saving money and gaining experience. Or I could potentially take a job in a different location, one that I would have previously applied for and actually been offered. And then, there’s the third option. If I don’t hear back from any jobs I come across, and I just don’t wish to stay home long term, I could always pick a place and start fresh.
A friend of mine has mentioned a couple of times that, if neither of us has a job that we enjoy once we return home, we will pick a new place where we want to live and start from scratch. Is this a foolproof plan? Certainly not. But how does anyone get started doing anything? If I’m not happy at home, and I don’t have any job opportunities readily available, I could always save money for a time and make a plan to travel some place new. The idea terrifies me. But I can’t just sit and let life pass me by, hoping that something will turn up without me having to do a thing. If my sister wants to join the National Guard, she will work her hardest to make it possible. If I want to live in a new place and pursue the teaching of science, I can only rely on myself to make it happen. I will admit, there is a possibility that I will be involved in a master’s program that will require me to stay close to home, but, either in place of that or immediately afterwards, I can still make my own plan. All that I can think of right now is an extremely appropriate quote that I used in my Salutatorian speech and nicely sums up what I wish to happen at the end of these next three weeks:
“Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
athoughtfulmind 