Saturday, September 11, 2010

Not Giving Up

Five years ago I had a plan. I was going to transfer to a four year university, study history/secondary ed, graduate, and teach high school history. Two years ago I was half way through my plan with graduation in sight. In the spring of 2009 I graduated, first person in my family to do so. I was pretty proud of myself. Now I’ve been out of school for over a year, working at a job I love but that I was qualified to do before I transferred.
Beyond my basic plan, I wanted to get my master’s degree and eventually my Ph.D. When I couldn’t find a job teaching I researched advanced degree programs, figured out some that I really like, and saved them as favorites so I could find them easily. Today I realized I haven’t looked into that in months. I actively avoid pausing over the “Graduate Schools” spot on my favorites menu. Part of the reason I haven’t looked at them is because I want to be practical and I know it’s harder to get your first teaching job with an advanced degree. Part of it is…I don’t really know.
All that is to say, I feel like I’ve given up on my dreams. I’m no longer on the path I want to be on. There aren’t many teaching opportunities at the moment, so I don’t think that’s something I can pursue any more than I have. Instead I will working diligently at my applications for grad school. The big problem there is that the programs I like are rather hard to get into (3% acceptance rate at one), or very far away (like on the East Coast). I think further research is called for on this one, but I have to work fast since most take applications in the late fall or early winter.

1 comment:

  1. don't give up. i know it's crazy because of the teaching world today... but hang in there. :)

    ReplyDelete