The Plan

I decided to quit teaching this year because a) I was completely overwhelmed and b) I was feeling led to do missions for at least a year. I ended the school year not knowing where I was going to go or what I was going to be doing, which was really scary. I've always had long-term plans for my life... even when they didn't turn out the way I expected them to, there was still always a plan. When I was 15, I knew that I was going to go to college, major in psychology, go to graduate school, get my MFT degree, and spend the rest of my life as a Christian counselor.

Those plans changed as I went into my last semester of college because I realized that my career would be spent in an office, listening to people's problems. I still love listening to people's problems, but I think one of the reasons I love it is because I'm not getting paid for it. I enjoy being a good listener, but I think I would have become resentful about helping people with their problems if I had chosen it as a career. I also don't think I could have worked in an office. I worked in the alumni office at Vanguard while I went to school there. It was only 8 hours per week, but it usually felt like 40. I felt claustrophobic the majority of the time, I stuffed envelopes, filed things, copied things, etc. All indoors, never seeing the light of day (now I'm just being dramatic). The gist of it is that I found I needed a job where I'm able to move around a lot and all of them since then have been that way.

I graduated college with the BA in Psychology in hand, started looking for jobs in group homes, found that I would have been eaten alive by the teenagers in group homes, and ended up working with adults with developmental disabilities instead. I fell in love with this population of people and that ended up leading me down the path to becoming a special ed. teacher. With that came a lot of joy (i.e. the students, field trips, the students, pep rallies, watching kids from general ed. becoming friends with the students, the other teachers, supportive parents, and did I mention the students?) and a lot of trials (i.e. endless paperwork, parents who yelled at staff, advocates, cliques within the staff, etc.). There were a lot of people that I met over the past 2 years who became like family to me, but I also knew that it was time for me to leave busy, materialistic Orange County.

After a month or so of not having a long-term plan for the first time in my life, it appears that I'll be moving to Eastern Kentucky. There's a place called the Christian Appalachian Project and I have felt that God is leading me there for this period in my life. I've applied to be a long-term volunteer for 9 months beginning October 1st and I'm really excited to see what's going to happen during my time there. I'll be living with other volunteers in a community house, sharing meals and prayer together 5 days per week. They have a lot of different service opportunities, but I'm hoping that I'll end up as a respite worker for adults with disabilities or that I'll get to work in their program for 3-5 year olds. They could end up placing me somewhere else within CAP, but those were the two that really piqued my interest. There seems to be a plan again (as long as I get in) and I can't wait to see what will happen!