It turns out that I really like teaching English. I’m still not great at it, and I still get shaky when I get up in front of a class, but I really like it. It’s fun, it’s challenging, and it’s engaging. Above all, it’s wonderful to do a job that takes place, for the most part, not in front of a computer screen. Even better: I can make a decent living at it, and it will keep me living in wonderful, warm and interesting parts of the world.
So is this what I should do?
As I mentioned a while back, I was brought up with a certain point of view about “careers.” A career, I always thought as a child and adolescent, is something “impressive.” It’s a “real job” with a title, the kind of title that makes someone go “oooooh… they must be smart.” Lawyer. University Professor. Doctor. Policy Analyst. A life not spent at a “smart person’s job” is a life wasted.
I am a smart person. I graduated at the top of my grad school class, and I’ve always done well at most “brainy” things. I could get a PhD in international affairs, or I could become a lawyer.
But just because I can, does that mean that I should? Most of these “fancy” jobs are social sciences related. And while I’m good at social sciences, I’m going to be honest: I’m not passionate about them. I spent two years in a social sciences Masters program, and I was never that into it. A few papers here and there were interesting, but my juices never really flowed. I looked at some of my friends and colleagues – those who got excited about conferences, articles and so forth – and found myself kind of jealous.
Teaching I actually enjoy. Maybe I should go with what I enjoy, what gets my juices flowing, and see where it takes me.
The only problem is that I still have it somewhat embedded in my brain that this is not the kind of job I should do for the rest of my life. I should do this for awhile, but then at 30 or something get a “real” job. Because if I spent my whole life teaching, I’d somehow “regret” it later.
But what if I don’t regret it? What if I do this, and have a wonderful and interesting life? What if I’m happy the whole way? Will I look back at the age of 75 and wish I’d been a lawyer, that I’d “challenged” myself more?
I guess we’ll see.
Comments 1
Yes. No. Maybe…
Sound like you are asking yourself this question. Since there are generally multiple *right* paths and *wrong* paths, no matter what path you take you will someday look back at your life and regret not having taken one of the other paths. Then, at some point you will look back on your life and whole heartedly believe that you took the only right path.
In my more opinion, you are doing the right thing, looking to the future, looking to the past, and trying to decide what you should do. Thinking ahead to what kind of person you will be like in the future, and what will create a spark in you then, is something too few people do. Congratulations.
I think that teaching IS a real job. Especially if you can continue to grow and be excited about doing it. Too few teachers really have that spark that is needed to excite their students about learning. That sounds like a heck of a challenge to me. Most any career becomes *un-challenging* if you let it. Once you get to know a job, you can usually just muddle through each day with no challenges. Or, you can make challenges, make it interesting and grow with the job.
I suspect you will make any job you get interesting. I suggest trying teaching for a while and see how it goes.
Bob L
Posted 27 Jan 2010 at 6:50 am ¶Post a Comment