Yesterday, I was talking with a long time friend of mine and I mentioned that I had been asked by yet another Principle to return the next year as a full-time Teacher at a super salary (especially for a small town)! My friend who knows the gut wrenching details of my career efforts for the past 2 years, told me what I've quoted in the post and honestly, it almost made me cry.
I'm more than aware that many times, people end up not in the careers they envisioned for themselves, but in the one that seemed to come of of nowhere. I also blogged a couple days ago about feeling like my career these days is unexceptional which I should clarify to mean my research/lab experiences these past 2 years. The thing is that many times, I think people just get comfortable with the "position from nowhere" based on the income it provides, or maybe they really like their coworkers, or maybe it fits their lifestyle as a working Mother (Working Moms seem to do this FAR more than Working men), or perhaps all of the above. Sometimes when I think about how blessed I am to have been a Teacher before and also have a natural knack for working with kids/students, it makes me wonder (for a picosecond) if I'm doing the right thing career wise. But that's the shortest picosecond in the history of time, a good part of what attracts me to medicine is the constant intellectual stimulation and requirements to keep learning something new. The idea that I could also work with kids is just icing on the cake! And I wouldn't have to give up teaching either since I've had my eye on an academic career for as long as I can remember (though I'm VERY concerned about age discrimination when that time comes).
For now, I've decided to work with kids every two weeks on Friday afternoons when schools seem to need help the most. And I'm hoping my new research group will be okay with that.;)
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