enigma48's Journal: Insert your own witty subject here

You know, I really have to stop wearing jeans and dark t-shirts when they forecast 29C for the day.

I'll write more about the background of this sometime - maybe - but I'm in the middle of a career change. Half-heartedly tried the programming thing (everyone else was doing it) having no better idea at the time. Now I've decided my new love in life will be teaching.

I've done several things in my life that tell me I enjoy teaching - working with people stuck on assignments, some tutoring, etc. I ran my own business for a number of years selling computers and at least half my time was spent just teaching people about computers. I know I enjoy teaching-related stuff.

It's been a rough choice though. The past year or so, I've started noticing I have anxiety issues - probably not severe but I'm starting to doubt that I'm the same as everyone else :). Leaving a no-risk ("hey, I'll try it") programming job I disliked for a high-risk ("I *want* this - what do I do if this doesn't work? What am I worth if I fail at this?") teaching career path definately hasn't helped the situation!

On the other hand, talking with a friend today, I've got a number of good things going that should be calming me down. There's a new IT teaching position at the hospital my mom works at that I seem to be moderately qualified for. I'm now a TA (CIS 1000 - Learning Word, Excel, HTML, etc) at the University of Guelph. My favourite high-school teacher helped set me up with another teacher so I can learn the high-school system, volunteer to improve my chance of getting into Teachers College, etc. I've got an excellent shot at getting my old Costco Electronics Salesperson job back to help out the money situation.

To sum that whole paragraph up: I've got WAY too many good things going to feel sorry for myself. Being hard on myself ("you don't deserve this") isn't new but I think the critics in my head just went on a hiring spree this past year.

My apologies to everyone/anyone reading - I'm still not sure what I want to write in this journal o' mine so I'm just doing random thoughts. I promise, I do have good days!

Either someone cloned my own experiences...

[jd]

...or there really are other people like myself out there. :)

Seriously, I read through the whole journal article and kept stopping to ask if I wrote this. Right down to wearing exactly the wrong clothing for 30+'C days. Teaching, tutoring, programming, et al - been there, done that, can understand completely why teaching can have more appeal than an 8-5 (plus unpaid overtime) job where the greatest reward is when someone else brings in the doughnuts and coffee.

My own tutoring experience has been to take