Gypsy Teaching

Confession time: I am a planner. Okay so if you have read a few of these posts you would probably know that already. I am not a change-the-plans-last-minute kind of girl. If I could know just what I am doing for the rest of my life, play down to the minute each moment, I would be a happy person.

Naturally, life is not like that. So for this planner, substitute teaching is a bit of a nightmare. There is the whole mystery around if I will get a call the next morning or if I won't. And if I do get a call, where will I be? Which school district? Which school? Which class? Which subject? The lists goes on. I step out in faith each day, not knowing where the day will take me.

In a weird and twisted kind of way, I got a certain peace when I was sick because I always knew where I was going to be the next day, what doctor I was going to see, and what drug I would need to take. I had a schedule. The planner in me was happy even if the rest of me was not.

As a substitute teacher, I feel a lot like a gypsy.

Why? Well, it all started my junior year of college. That was when classes ramped up, and I had to face the reality of my career choice. I knew college was going to be hard but being an education major is a whole nother level of hard. The amount of homework involved still makes me cringe. Add to that field work, lesson plans, unit plans, state company tests (That cost over $100 each) and just the general pressure of my family and myself to do well.

So in the midst of the chaos, my two college besties and I are doing homework and for the 100th time that month we feel stupid. Fed up, we start to joke. "Maybe we should just run away and be gypsies!" I proclaim. "They don't care if we do well, we can wear cute clothes, travel, every day will be an adventure, and we will never have to do college again!"

We all had a good laugh and tried to focus on our homework. After that, whenever we were frustrated or confused about college, we would joke that we were going to run away and be gypsies. We often invited others to go with us. The story kept us cheerful on the long weekends of lesson planning and early morning observations.

And yet here I am. Graduated. Degree in hand, teaching. Ironically, the thing I thought would be the exact opposite of being a gypsy is what has turned out to be just that. I never know where I am going to be the next day. I have to bring everything with me when I go. I travel a lot. each day is an adventure.

Not what I had in mind. But, hey, will take the daily adventure.

My new normal is teaching me that the unknown is a good thing; where nothing is certain anything is possible.

-Rachael