Thursday, October 9, 2014

Never liked English in School So How Did I Get Here?

Alright I need to be honest about something.  All through school English was never my favorite subject.  Oh, for the most part I adored reading (I am a bookaholic), but the rest of it including literature analyses and such I did not necessarily find fun, exciting or interesting.  Initially I went to school to become a teacher, but allowed some well meaning people and a few not so well meaning people to convince me I was on the wrong path.  So I switched majors and colleges to pursue a degree in Business Administration.  This was not my "best yes" by any means.

I graduated from college and despite attending numerous job fairs and interviews through the university,  I did not find a job.  Then I decided to stay in school to complete the courses I needed to get an accounting degree.  After all there would always be a need for accountants.  That first summer, I ended up getting the worst sunburn of my life along with falling through a dock and hurting my knee.  So I ended up not doing well in the courses.  I decided to withdraw.  And because of some other things going on I ended up moving to Jacksonville, NC to live with my finance's sister.  The following August we ended up getting married.

Four years later we had our first son.  Then we had two more sons and while I was working at an Insurance agency as the office manager and enjoyed my job, it was time for a change.  So I interviewed for and accepted a job as a high school math teacher.  I did what is called Lateral-Entry - it means you already have a degree and courses you need to get certified in a particular area and basically just have the education course requirements left.  I worked at the school for two years, the third son was born during that second year.  My husband and I decided it was best for me to pursue being a substitute teacher since we had health insurance through his job.

Two years later we found out we were expecting our daughter and it was in our best interest for me to quit working.  Two years after she was born, my husband went active duty in the Army Reserves and we moved on the military installation.  At that point, I decided to go back to school to finish my education requirements.  During this time, I had a wonderful instructor for one of my courses.  She was an amazing woman.  She was teaching another one of the courses I needed, but it was on the Masters Level.  She offered the opportunity for several of us who already had degrees and were in the current course with her the opportunity to take this Masters Level class.  What an amazing journey it was too!  The entire class revolved around nothing less than writing papers for the entire course and having meaningful discussions about what we learned.  This gave me a passion for writing.

During this time, my husband also went back to school and I had to proofread all his papers for him and much to my amazement I enjoyed it.  I enjoyed taking apart and putting back together theses masterpieces.  And they must have been masterpieces because he wound up with "A's" in the majority of his courses.

I also was homeschooling my children - which you guessed it, involved me teaching English.  So when we moved from eastern NC to western PA it only seemed fitting to begin a blog.  I enjoyed writing this.  I enjoyed writing about our experiences, our dreams, our thoughts and just the general thoughts that came to mind.  So even though I never liked English in school, I am enjoying it now.

8 comments:

  1. My husband never liked English - he doesn't spell naturally and could care less about correct sentence structure. However, he has written numerous books. I end always being his editor and we co-author other times.

    On the other side of this, I could care less about many of the sciences. With a psychology background, I love certain aspects, and I often say that I walk with a one foot in the scientific world and one in the spiritual world :) My psych degrees are in spiritual + transpersonal psych. Anywho, now that I am homeschooling our youngest you guess it I am having to step into teaching the other areas of science too. And, it is much more enjoyable watching him get so excited and learn (he loves science).

    Honoring you for stepping into the English arena (and beyond) to be their for your precious children!

    Janelle

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    1. Thanks Janelle for your kind comment. Kudos to you for homeschooling your youngest and stepping out of your comfort zone. Isn't if fun being the editor to your husband? I enjoyed readng my husband's paper and helping him with the corrections. It really stretched me to help him find the exact words he wanted to say.

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  3. Thanks for sharing your journey. It has taken courage to make some tough decisions!

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    1. Thanks Michelle for stopping by. I appreciate your comments.

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  4. Aww, I love that little journey you just took me on. That sounds awesome! I'm glad you started blogging and have a passion for it :) And major props to you- I think I would pull my hair out if I had to home school my kids haha

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    1. Thanks for your comment. It has definitely been an awesome journey. You would be amazed at what you can do when you are put in exactly the right set of circumstances. When homeschooling becomes the only option, it can work out for the best. Since we started homeschooling, our family is much closer than ever before.

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