Sarah Jane Elliott
Word Games
Thursday, January 10, 2008
That Darned Cliff Again
Every so often, I get the feeling that my life can be summed up by a big giant cliff. The move to the ROM felt like I was jumping off that cliff, but it wasn't. Not really. It was more a stumble over an embankment that led to the cliff. I thought that the move to Teacher's College was the jump off the cliff, but as it turns out again, it was only a little dip. A small jump to a ledge a few feet down. The real cliff is much, much bigger.I went to the Boards Fair at York tonight. And I realized something. I want to teach in the TDSB or nowhere.
But before that, I want to teach overseas.
The thought terrifies me. But it's also the perfect time. I'm graduating, I don't have a full-time job lined up, I've never really left Canada (I've been around on band trips and for cons, but I rarely saw farther than the hotel). It's the perfect time in my life to go.
But I'm scared of leaving my apartment (though chances are very good we can find someone to sublet). I'm scared of teaching in a place where I don't speak the language (for whatever reason, I'm really attracted to teaching in Korea). I'm also thinking about Australia and New Zealand. And maybe London, Cardiff, or Scotland. I'm very uncertain. But something is telling me that this is what I need to be doing.
Sunday, January 06, 2008
What a Wonderful World
I ended up doing pretty much nothing yesterday (though I did get a number of gifts made while watching fluff), but in the afternoon, Chris dropped by and said that we needed to go for a walk. This is why.
It was perfectly, gloriously winter. It was about four in the afternoon, but as you can see, the streetlights were on, because the sky was a dark, slate grey. Yet the weather was mild, everywhere you looked was white, and there was a silence about everything, like the world was holding its breath.
It's the kind of winter we don't see much anymore. I remember getting home from school on my birthday and going out into the backyard to build snowforts and tunnel through the snow. This is the first year in ages that my birthday was not actually green. Yes, winter is cold, and can be very wet and sniffly, but days like this also remind you that it can be quietly, breathtakingly beautiful.
Change to Opportunity to Transformation
Happy New Year, everyone!It's the start of another year, and I'm left not knowing quite where I am. Life has been such a blur lately (owing in large part to teacher's college) that it's hard to figure out just how I got here. When I compare where I am now to where I was two years ago, it's a little staggering to see how much has changed in only two years. And yet, there are some things that I had great hopes for that are still in the same place they were then.
I said two years ago, when I began planning about teacher's college, that I felt as though I were standing at the top of a cliff, so high I couldn't see the bottom. Teacher's college was the leap off that cliff. But I'm still falling, and still have no idea where I'm going to end up a year from now. As scary as it is, it's also a little exhilarating, because that unknown holds so much possibility.
So what does 2008 hold in store? Finishing teacher's college is, of course, the priority. But what next? I have so much I want to accomplish this year, and it's going to be really difficult to get it all together. Some kind of plan is definitely in order. But most of all, for 2008, I really want to bring some focus back to my writing, and to Stellar Magpie. It's not going to be easy, with everything else I have to do, but at least I have some idea of where to start.
And it helps to know that, no matter how scary things get, I don't have to go through anything alone.
A New Addition to the Family
Erin's birthday/Christmas present to me finally arrived (which means I was finally able to give mine to her). She was a little worried -- she said it was really weird, and wasn't sure whether or not I would like it.She needn't have worried. She knows me far too well.
