Chance of a Lifetime

Sit back and buckle up, this is going to be one heck of a story.

I love my job at the daycare, I truly do. But unfortunately I've hit the ceiling. I've advanced as far as I can go there, and it's still not the job I was hoping for when I graduated from college. Most disappointing, they insist on a bachelor's degree to even be considered for the job, and I'm making as much there as I was when I worked for a time at uBash.

Last year, I applied to some 250 schools and districts across New England, trying to sell myself by stating I held two bachelor's degrees, was bilingual, held my license, was willing to relocate, etc. No bites. It was disheartening to log in to the job sites I had bookmarked and find I had been rejected. Last year just..wasn't a good year for me. I think I scared the parents a bit because I got so depressed.

Mom came to me and pitched the idea of joining TFA, a teacher's peace corps program. The deal was I would be "stationed" in a high need area in the States for two years, but I'd be paid a yearly salary, a stipend hen my contract was up, could work toward my Master's degree, and would get the experience that the schools were looking for.

So I applied, and a week later was asked if I'd be interested in working in high need areas such as the Carolinas, Las Vegas, and Florida. I said yes, of course, I'd be willing to go to those places if I needed to, sign me up.

At the end of September I got a lengthy email from them that, to summarize, said "You're awesome, but no." I honestly cried for days.

But after being rejected by them, I started getting offers from smaller corps and organizations, so I gave them all a look. Nothing really appealed to me.

October I get an offer to apply for an immersion program funded by a certain famous mouse. This program would station me in China, and I'd be working in a classroom teaching English to Chinese children. Since it was what I went to school for (in a way), and heck, it's the Mouse, I applied. But when I hadn't heard anything by December last year, I gave up on it.


Fast forward to the end of March this year. My uncle had passed away (don't worry, we're all doing okay, the poor guy had been so ill that when his time came we all knew it was for the best), and I was meeting the family at the funeral home for the wake. We hadn't seen them for almost two years, so they all had questions about what i was up to. I shared my story with them, and they all said the same thing: something better has to be coming along.

I get home from the wake, check my email, and find a message from HR for the Mouse program, wanting to schedule an interview with me within the next 3 days from them. I squealed so loudly Mom thought I had seen a mouse scoot across the living room floor, until I told her what it was.

Had the interview the next day over Skype (right after the funeral...that was tough, I knew I was gonna be a mess by the time I got home), and was offered the job right away, but they gave me the weekend to read up on the area and the program because I had honestly forgotten about it. Then the following Monday, I accepted the offer.

I start my new job in China on August 2. I'm beyond thrilled. Closest I've ever had to leaving the country was driving up to Niagara Falls when I was 14, now I'm flying all the way across the globe. The program is paying me nearly three times what I make at the daycare now, is also paying my rent while in China, pays for my ticket over there and my ticket back when the contract is up. And I won't be alone; I have a friend from college who has been teaching in China in a similar program since last spring, so when I told him I was heading over there he was thrilled. We plan on meeting up and getting a place together to try and save some money, plus he knows where everything is over there and can help me find my feet once I land. The only thing that squicks me is the flight over. From Logan to Hangzhou (where I've been placed) it's almost 13 hrs. I'm so skittish about flying, I have no idea how I'm going to manage it.

The last few weeks have kept me busy getting all my stuff together. My passport just arrived in the mail yesterday (super cool, first person in the family to have one), and I'm taking a TEFL-C course online that when I finish will net me a copy of Rosetta Stone in Mandarin (so I can find my way around) as well as make me qualified to teach English as a foreign language (which could help me land a job when I come back)

So there's my story. I'm still wiggly and excited over the whole thing. Mom thinks my uncle and grandfather (who were inseparable when together) got together and raised some hell up there until somebody said "All right! Whaddaya want?" and they said "Well...."