Looking back over my blog posts this year I have noticed
that almost every single one starts with some sort of apology for taking so
long to post, so this time I am not going to do that. My life has been hectic,
crazy, and honestly, not a whole lot to write about. I am not one of those people who will blog
every single week, because 1. I don’t have that much to say about things on a
weekly basis, and 2. I would not like it then. So if you were hoping to hear
more about my life teaching internationally watch my Facebook account. You are
more likely to see pictures or hear random funny things that happen on a day to
day basis. Okay, enough of that, now let’s get to the actual post, yes?
Many time over the last three years of teaching
internationally the questions ‘if you were not a (music) teacher what would you
be’ has been brought up to me. Every time this happens I never know how to
answer. I believe the first time I said I would teach FCS. I’m fairly certain
every time this question comes up my answer has changed. This has led me to
think about something that was talked about quite often during my college
years, especially while I was at Waldorf, vocation.
I remember sitting in Steve Smith’s ethics class, 2nd
to last table in the back of the room isle seat near the door, the first time
we had a class discussion about vocation and what it means. Every time the
question is raised I think back to all of those class sessions where we discuss
vocation and how to find it. Every time it is asked I think to myself, is this
actually what I am going to do with the rest of my life? Honestly, I don’t
know. This year has been really hard on me and has made me think about leaving
teaching all together, but then I ask myself what I would do if I wasn’t
teaching? As I sit at a desk in a computer lab (I no longer have a classroom,
it has been demolished) every day since the students left I have been
reflecting on my three years of teaching so far, but especially this year.
There have been lots of ups and downs throughout the year.
The biggest low being when I almost didn’t back to Kuwait after the winter
break. I had flown from Minneapolis to Chicago and ran to catch my plane. As I
was sitting there in my seat and I received a text message from a very special
person. What did the text say? I have no clue, he just likes to press buttons
and click send, but that text had me standing up and grabbing my carry-on about
to walk off the plane, rent a car, and drive back to Chicago. However, as I was
picking up my bag the flight attendant came on saying that the cabin door had
been closed and we were about to be pushing back from the gate. I stayed on the
plane and returned to Kuwait. There have been a few times during the rest of
the school year where I would wonder about what I would be doing had I actually
walked off the plane.
For the most part I am glad I didn’t walk off. Yes, the first semester was really rough for
me and second semester had plenty of bumps along the way, but for the most part
second semester was better. I got to
know other music teachers in Kuwait, joined a community choir, worked on and
had students attend the Kuwait Music Festival, and enjoyed teaching classes
more. Am I nervous about next year? Yes. Am I going to think about that over
the summer? I sure hope not.
This summer is going to fly by for me. In less than 48 hours
I will be boarding a plan to return to Iowa. I have lots of appointments set
up, several road trips (not as many as I originally had hoped), a coaching
class, weddings to attend, and working. I will be in the States for just over
two months before I return to Kuwait to start my second year at AAG. I am hoping
it will go a little better, we will just have to wait and see.
I promised I would get one last blog post up before I left
Kuwait, so there you have it. Hope to see many of you sometime in the next two
months! Oh, and by the way, it is currently 115 degrees at 10 am and I think it is beautiful. In other words, I will probably be wearing a sweatshirt when it is 70-80 degrees in Iowa this summer. :)
