How Deciding to Quit Teaching Made Me Love My Job Again
Let’s face it, teaching has become harder over the years. It’s 2015; Common Core is on the plate. If you’re a teacher, I need to say no more. Teachers are just stressed out.
AND if you are a perfectionist teacher, you're probably insane.
When I began teaching, I certainly didn't do it for the money. I taught because I loved it. AND NOW teaching was not fun anymore.
Many things happened to me because of the stress from teaching and trying to do it perfectly: weight gain, depression, and I began to feel old and sluggish. Not to mention, I became edgy with my husband and children.I waited for this stress to pass, for Common Core to settle in, for us to finish tweaking our lesson plans, and things get back to normal. BUT they didn't.
I was depressed.I went to a psychologist about my depression. He said that I needed to add variety to my life to overcome my depression. I tried to plan some trips and cook new and different meals. BUT soon the question became: How do you have time for variety when the week is filled with papers to grade and meetings to attend and then weekends full of dishes and laundry? Soon, the same gray cloud began to loom over my days.
So, FINALLY, with a deep regret in my heart, I decided to quit teaching.I talked and talked about quitting. AND talked and talked.Finally, my patient, yet frustrated husband said, "Okay, so quit teaching, but what will you do with yourself afterwards?" Financially and mentally- he knew that I couldn't handle being idle.
Hmmm. Good question. So, I began searching for other jobs. I began with Indeed.com.I searched jobs in my area. Most jobs sounded so assembly line like, so boring.
I had always wanted to be a flight attendant so I searched flight attendant jobs. Did you know what flight attendants would do for a hot meal?
I sometimes dreamed of becoming a famous writer so I searched freelance writing and editing jobs. Boy, I'd really have to build up a reputation or have a degree in journalism.
I have a good personality (at times) so I began researching sales jobs: What on earth would I care enough about to sell for the rest of my life?AND none of these jobs gave me summers off and the same schedule as my school-age children.
AT THE SAME TIME, perfectionist and over-worked me began to slack a bit at work.I began to leave school at a set time (no matter if the next day wasn't perfectly planned out).I decided to not bring as much paperwork home. (After all, I was just dutifully waiting out the year's end.)I quit checking ALL of the countless, unimportant emails that are sent through my inbox. If they were not from my administrator or directly about my duties, I hit...delete. Sigh.
Most importantly, instead of checking off my "to do" list of teaching duties at a neck-break pace, I began to slow things down a bit to look into my students eyes and laugh with them. They are cute, aren't they? And suddenly, the gray cloud lifted and the sun began to shine.AND SUDDENLY, I didn't want to quit teaching anymore. AND for that day, for that week, I loved my job again.