What I Love About My Job

There are always things people don't like about their jobs, and I could name them, too, but ya know, I think mine's got a lot of perks, in the grand scheme of things. In no particular order: 

1. On Mondays and Wednesdays, my first class, which is a 10-minute drive from my apartment, doesn't start until 10:00 a.m. This means I don't have to leave my house until 9:30, giving me an extra hour around the house to spend as I please. Sometimes this means washing dishes or straightening up. Often, it means an extra cup of coffee, yoga, or reading. (Don't worry, I make up for it by not taking a lunch those days.)

2. I have enough time between my morning and afternoon classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays to do 30 minutes of yoga in my empty classroom and still eat lunch. Before it got too cold and rainy, I was having a picnic outside on a blanket in a field behind the church twice a week. Fresh air, blue skies, good food, and a good book. And sometimes a free cup of coffee if the secretary makes it. 

3. Also on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have enough time to eat dinner and watch an episode of 30 Rock before my next class. 

4. Mileage reimbursement = free gas

5. My coworkers are fun and easy to work with. 

6. I can come to the office on no-class Fridays wearing jeans, a t-shirt, no makeup, and my hair in a ponytail and it's totally cool. No one to see, no one to impress but my computer and my papers. 

7. Sometimes (like, a couple times a year) we close the office early on Fridays and I'm home by 3:30.

7. My office is close enough to everything that going to the bank, supermarket, or post office during lunch or right after work is totally doable.

8. My students might annoy me sometimes (like when I have to explain how to conjugate "to be" 15 times a day) but for the most part, I love them all. Especially the students in my jail class who say funny things like, "We might kill someone, but we wouldn't ever rob anybody," as if that makes them win the Morality of the Year Award. And of course, the moments when I see that what I'm teaching is actually sticking, and I can see progress in their English ability, it makes it all worthwhile. 

9. Complete autonomy when it comes to lesson planning. No one tells me what to teach, so I can make a mix of life skills, grammar, vocabulary, literature, history, music and culture (all the things I love) and there's no problem. As long as students' test scores go up (which, invariably, they do), everyone is happy.

10. Not being in the office all day. Being able to go from site to site keeps me from being bored. And it makes the day go by faster. And I can do things like visit a roadside grill or farmers market in the middle of nowhere Wake County between classes.

See? There are always things to be grateful for. I'm never gonna make it rich working at a non-profit, but it definitely has its pluses! 

Autumn

Last autumn I was so busy apartment-hunting and then finally moving in, while at the same time getting settled into my new job, that I didn't have time to do anything autumn-y except go to the State Fair. This year I've got a vase of goldenrods sitting on my table with my pinecone candleholders, a weekend camping trip to the mountains planned, and a host of fall recipes waiting to be cooked. I want to savor this season before it slips away from me like I let happen last year.

Not that I don't have a lot going on, though. You've probably all heard how wretchedly busy I am this semester. I'm teaching four separate classes at the Literacy Council, plus my usual Wake Tech night class, all twice a week. Add to this the weekly updates I'm doing for the Wake Tech EL/Civics blog (two posts a week) and the mentoring I'm doing for a promising ESL student-teacher, and I've got something like a 60-hour work week facing me until Christmas. Throw in the 9-week Financial Peace class I'm taking at church every Wednesday night, and it's no wonder my friends complain that they never see me. It's stressful and tiring, but it has taught me how to be organized and manage my time. Ha! One of these days life will slow down . . . but until then, I have to relish these pockets of beauty and quiet when I can.

I love the fall, love the leaves turning colors, love the harvest food at the farmers market, love the big blue afternoon skies, the late afternoon sun going down that always reminds me of reading "Three Dreams and a Nightmare" outside in the field behind my house, wrapped up in a blanket on the ground until it got too dark to see. I'll miss the warmth of summer, but always welcome the nostalgic homeyness of fall.

"O suns and skies and clouds of June
And flowers of June together
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October's bright blue weather."

--Helen Hunt Jackson, 1831-1885