Okay, fine, I admit it–I want a job

Durham Castle, England

I am finally beginning to understand a simple fact of life: when I stop worrying about things and trying to make them happen, they work out just fine.

Last week I wrote about how I had to accept that I'm my own boss and that no school is going to give me a job with my lack of Englishness and English experience. I had been called fairly often by one of the five teaching agencies that I signed up for. Each time they kept trying to get me a position somewhere and even one place they asked me to interview but it was too far and my holiday was coming up anyway. But they kept telling me they were putting my resume forward for different English teaching positions which I just thought was pointless since nothing’s happened for almost a year now.

Last week they told me they had a school they were trying to get me in for to teach Key Stage 3 (middle school) English and the teaching agency was going to offer to pay for me to come in for a few days on a trial run basis to see if they wanted to hire me on. That was fine, I told them, and figured I’d never hear back about it. I had already decided that I was staying home and writing the second book in my project’s series. I already set up my own imprint, fancies up my blogs (including my author page), and worked on the blurbs for the cover and the Smashword descriptions. Plus, NaNoWriMo is coming up next week – I’m a busy lady! I was not going to worry about some potential teaching job one bit.

Of course, they said they school accepted my trial run offer.

Now I’m looking at a week next month at a nice, Catholic School with kids aged 11-14. I’m not sure what they’ll have me do during this trial run; if I’ll be purely a supply/substitute teacher, taking over the class and teaching from lesson plans already made up, or if I’ll be working with a teacher who is getting ready to go on maternity leave. Whatever the case, I honestly am really excited.

Once I knew that I’d be going back to work, I felt a weight off my shoulders. I love being home but I would rather go in and work and try to do my best so that this school keeps me on. I miss having shopping money, and having someone to talk to at lunch, and finding ways to get kids interested in reading and writing. No, I have no idea if they’d consider keeping little ‘ol American me, but I sincerely would love to be in gainful employment again.

Plus, I need a car and Christmas money. For real.

So wish me luck that I do a great job and the school keeps me for the rest of the school year. If I can work with kids, I can write for kids even better. I’ve not abandoned my plans for NaNoWriMo or my grand series scheme. If I’m working, I know it will be tougher to find time to write but other people do it, so I will too.

Regardless of the outcome, I know I’ll have extra cash for the holidays, thank God. I am so grateful for that! Santa can’t get much done without some dosh.

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