The next chapter of my life

If you have read my first post this is a continuation of my journey. If this is your first time reading I would suggest to take a read of my first post to get a better understanding. This picture is a door that I created during my time volunteering in a Kindergarten classroom. And this is where the journey continues..

For the next week after my contract ended I did a lot of soul searching. My family was very supportive of this process and just wanted me to find my passion so that I could be happy. I did all those online job quizzes and I kept receiving the answer “that I would succeed best in a career in education.” I’ve always loved children for as long as I could remember. Every time I was introduced to a baby I would always want to spend all my time with them. When family members came over and they had young children, even when I was older, I’d rather spend my time playing with their children then engaging in conversation with them. In high school I had to take a course called “Careers”, and in this course we explore various careers, obviously, that we would possibly want to get into once we completed high school. Now thinking back I was 15 when I took this course, how could a 15 year old possibly know what career they want to pursue for the rest of their lives? Anyway, during this course I was always drawn into education or some type of career involving children. However at the time there was so much conversation around teachers and how they struggled finding jobs after teachers college and it worried me. I wanted a career that would allow me to be successful, which then had me looking at my mother.

My mother has always been a role model for me. She grew up with immigrant parents who really couldn’t help financially and so in order for her to go to college she had to work part time in the evenings, attend high school during the day, while taking care of her three younger brothers. She put herself through college and graduated and found herself a job. She got married and had my brother a few years later. My mother is such a intelligent women that her career just wasn’t enough for her. She had me and went back to school during the evenings to obtain her degree in finance while working full-time during the day and raising two young children. Seeing all that she has accomplished, seeing how successful she has been in the financial industry was what sparked my interest in business. So for the next two years of high school I enrolled in all business and math courses to prepare me for college. And from my last post we know how that ended.

Now touching back to the photo at the beginning, you’re probably wondering how did I get to this point. I recalled back on how much I loved children and so I said to myself, “Why don’t you work in a Kindergarten classroom like you’ve always wanted?” Unfortunately it was the month of October and school had already started and so I wasn’t able to apply again until January. So I thought I would volunteer in a Kindergarten classroom until I could start college. I then started calling all the elementary schools in my area, seeing if any school was looking for extra help in their Kindergarten classrooms. The next day I got a call from my old elementary school. The Vice Principal mentioned to me that one of the Kindergarten teachers was not eligible for an ECE because she only had 15 students and she would love the additional help, it felt like fate. I got my old part-time job back at a pasta store in Maple and was volunteering three days a week. At first I was scared, not knowing if I made the right decision, as I have made bad choice’s before. But this was the most validating experience of my life and I am forever grateful for that opportunity. The teacher that I was working with allowed me to run lesson plans and help assist during circle time. I attended field trips and was building relationships with each child. When I walked in each morning the children would run up to me and hug my legs (that was their height) and it would just make me feel so special. Knowing that I meant so much to students who I was a stranger to not long ago was so rewarding. It was going so well, until we experienced a death in the classroom.

In November 2017 we lost one of our students. It was completely unexpected and was very tragic. I was notified on a Sunday to be prepared for school on Monday. Now I believe that I was meant to be apart of that classroom for a number of reason’s but this unfortunate situation I believe is the main reason for why I was meant to be apart of that class. We were at a loss for words and didn’t know how to move forward. A Psychologist came into the classroom to explain what happened to the children, but they were so young, they didn’t really understand. I was there to offer support to the teacher, students and to the child’s family. At first I thought how could this have happened? Why do bad things keep happening to me and around me? But then I thought if I wasn’t there, if I didn’t make the choice to get into education, these students and this teacher wouldn’t have had me for support and assistance during this terrible time.

The rest of the school year went on and it was great. I was seeing real result’s from students comparing them to how they were when I first met them at the beginning of the school year. So much progress the students have made and it’s because of the hard work done by the teacher and I. I quit my part time job to volunteer full-time because I was so happy and so eager to work everyday, that when I was at my part time job I was sad to be away from the children. I woke up everyday with a smile on my face, I didn’t care that I was working for free, the experience was worth more then any kind of compensation. At times when the school was in a pinch for a teacher, they would ask me to step in and cover for the absences, I was able to get an even better taste of what my future career would be like. In June, at the end of the school year, I said my goodbye’s which was probably the hardest thing I have ever done. I had made a connection with every student, with many teachers and with other staff members. This experience was validation that I am heading down the right path and I was so excited and eager to start the next chapter of my journey, starting college.. again.