Leaving… Only to Return

Several times during college planning my senior year of high school, I informed my mom, “Remember, I won’t be coming back here to live after college – I’m sorry, but I’ll be finding a job somewhere else.” We remember that with a giggle every now and again when my family goes around the block to her house for dinner or she comes over to babysit so I can go to an appointment.
My youthful career aspirations ranged from a writer to a marine biologist, but it was when I hit Honors English in high school that I decided I wanted to teach. I had plenty of classroom experience already: I spent every summer in my mom’s classroom (her school was year-round) and volunteered twice to be an outdoor science school chaperone with elementary students. But I never thought I wanted a career with children. I knew I wanted to be a mom, but I wanted my career to be more challenging, stimulating, mentally invigorating, etc, etc. When I discovered the kind of in-depth discussions around books and writing that were possible in Honors English, I decided I would teach – and not just lazy high school students, but I would be a university professor!


After graduation, I enrolled at a small college within a university setting. It gave me the best of both worlds in my opinion: small classes, no annoying prerequisites to fill, frequent personal access to instructors, with all the resources the University of California system had to offer. I discovered early through my interaction and personal relationships with my instructors that a Ph.D. and the politics of university employment were not for me. So what then?


I fell back on the positive experience that had inspired my plan: high school English. As I neared the completion of my B.A., I began to research teaching credential programs. In a circumstance of divine providence, I was already enrolled at the home of one of the most respected programs on the forefront of research and teaching. I began the application process, which included logging volunteer hours in local classrooms to ensure interest and commitment to the profession. Since I planned to pursue a single-subject credential, I was required to log hours in both middle and high school classrooms. To my great surprise, I relished my middle school visits, and I found myself altering my plan yet again.


I spent 13 months completing my teaching credential and M.Ed, during which I was forced to think about where I would begin my job search. I had realized early that I wouldn’t stay in the university town; the cost of living was too high and jobs and real estate were both hard to come by. Meanwhile, the boyfriend I’d met just months before graduation was a major consideration in my next move. Both of us were from the same hometown, we both still had family there, and he was even living there and commuting to school in a nearby city.


Also factoring in my decision was my commitment to teach in a low-performing school. I had applied for and received a Governor’s Teaching Fellowship to pay for my year in the credential/Masters program. The requirement of this program was teaching in a school identified by state performance tests as low-performing. Nearly every school in my hometown fell into that category, even though several were desirable work-places in my opinion.


So home I went. I got a job, married my boyfriend (now husband) a year and a half later, bought a home, and started our family. I don’t feel like I settled, and I don’t have any regrets. I think I hadn’t grown up enough then to know that being surrounded by family was a far greater reward than a distinguished title or fancy location.