I did. How I got here (teaching abroad) involves a whole lot
of change of heart, change of personality, and change of dreams. In
high school I wanted to be a stay at home mom, and I didn’t want to wait a long
time to become that person. But then a great teacher convinced me to go to college,
and as it does to anyone, college challenged me and changed me, and molded me
into an adult with a different viewpoint. However, even after 3 years at college
I was convinced I would remain close to home.
During student teaching I began to explore the idea of
moving to another state, knowing that Minnesota was equipped with plenty of
fine teachers, but other states were in desperate need of new teachers, filled
with new ideas, who were ready to change the world.
Then grad school + student teaching made me go crazy, and
for a few weeks I thought I couldn’t do it. Teaching, as a job was too tough.
Luckily a friend was smart enough to suggest to me many other options, which
made me convinced that all I really wanted to do with my life was teach. Then
he made another suggestion. One, utterly crazy suggestion that I teach in
another country for a year or two. Impossible. I could never do it. But the seed was planted.
After getting in a pretty bad car accident on my way to a
Packer game, I decided it was time to pursue this option more, so I looked into
it, and within a few months I had secured a job at an international school in
Albania.
The plan: Go teach in Albania for 2 years, travel around
Europe, and then come home to find a nice man to marry and spend my "real life" with.
But, then I met Cortney and Scott in Albania, and they told me all
about their other jobs teaching abroad and we all started discussing our
futures, and the dreams began to grow. And so, eventually I started applying
for other jobs. In March I snagged a job with a brand new international school
in Jakarta.
How long with I be there? 24 months, maybe more. Where will
I go next? Home, or elsewhere. Will the dreaming ever stop? Nope.
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