I applied for an English teaching position in a school system I very much like, but I did not get the job.
Oh sadness!
- On the good side, I did get an interview--and I was one of only a few who did.
- On the good side, getting an interview and pursuing the job made me think carefully about my marketability as a teacher, and also where I want to work, and also what I want to teach, and how.
- On the good side, I became clearer about current trends in education (hello edtech!) and what (public) schools are currently looking for in teachers (knowledge of and alignment with the National and State Core Standards and a willingness to work collaboratively with other teachers around this).
- On the bad side, I put myself out there, and though I was in the top six of applicants, I was not numero uno applicant. I hate rejection.
- On the bad side, I was confronted with the fact that shifting from middle school to high school teaching will not be easy, at least in terms of getting hired. I am "expensive" because my Masters degrees and my 15 years of middle school teaching experience, but I am not experienced in the high school classroom. Expensive and Inexperienced are not a great combination when you are trying to get hired. That said, I have no plans of trying to get hired as a middle school teacher again. I want to teach high school.
- On the bad side, I will not be working in a school next year, despite that I am ready, after my four year break, to return to the classroom.
On the good side, I will no longer be using this place to discuss matters of teaching and education! I have a new blog for that.
Here I will just post about .... life.
And training. And racing. Or lack of it, as the case may be currently.
So onto training and racing!
Hmmmm.
That's tough. I haven't been doing much!
I have been running. I'm slow these days, but I am running. One day I hope that whatever speediness I once had will return. But for now, I'm just running slowly, and trying to appreciate that my body can run.
I have been thinking about this because of my feet.
I have really bad and sexy bunions, and as a result of said bad and sexy bunions, I have problems with my feet. I have arthritis along the second and third joints of the metatarsals; there is a lot of scar tissue in that area. I developed a stress fracture late last summer in the second metatarsal of my left foot, but truth be told, I have had fractures at that site on both feet -- many times-- and I have just not done anything about those fractures save to stop running for a bit until the pain is not so acute that I can stand it again.
Anyway, it's hard to flex my feet these days. They don't work well, as far as feet are concerned.
I've been wondering what will happen. Someday, will I simply not be able to run any more?
So I am trying to appreciate my running. I will continue to run until ... until I can't run. And when I say I can't run I don't mean I will stop when it hurts to run. I mean, when I CAN'T run. But you knew that already.
I became sick of swimming, so I am on a swimming break, except for some open water swimming, which is lovely except when one drinks pollen.
I am on a complete bike sabbatical.
I would like to compete in a few races at the end of the summer, but I'm not pushing myself.
I've finally, completely given in. I'm taking this year "off" in terms of training. Will I train still? Of course! But not according to rhyme and reason. Because I love training and racing. And I want to love it as much as I once did. So I need to let it go, so my love for it can come back.
In other news, we finally went to San Diego!
You may remember I was supposed to compete in Oceanside 70.3
But then I didn't train for that race.
And then I inherited three dogs.
And then my mother-in-law became very sick, and died.
And so that trip was put off. But we finally made it!
The landscape is hilly there. I ran every day, but my pace was pathetic, and my quads ached the first few days because of all that hill climbing and descending!
It was a beautiful trip.
Here are just a few pictures.
3 comments:
That lion sleeps like my dog! Move to Maine and teach at McAuley. That's my suggestion! :-)
Great that you're back and open and free again - shame that you didn't get that job though. I guess it helped to make you work out what you are looking for now though?
So glad and relieved you managed to go on a holiday - I'm sure you all needed it after the events of the past fw months.
As for taking a break from training hard - I'm glad you're okay with that (are you? You seem okay-ish with it). Changing your attitude towards training and racing is incredibly hard but sometimes very necessary. It will come back to you if you dare take enough pressure off yourself.
Great that you're back and open and free again - shame that you didn't get that job though. I guess it helped to make you work out what you are looking for now though?
So glad and relieved you managed to go on a holiday - I'm sure you all needed it after the events of the past fw months.
As for taking a break from training hard - I'm glad you're okay with that (are you? You seem okay-ish with it). Changing your attitude towards training and racing is incredibly hard but sometimes very necessary. It will come back to you if you dare take enough pressure off yourself.
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