As you may or may not know, I quit my job at the end of the school year. It wasn’t an easy decision to make, but I’m certain that it was the right decision. After my April Fool’s joke, I promised to share the story behind quitting with my followers. It’s been two weeks since I said goodbye to my job and I think I’m finally ready to share the story behind the decision.
Last May, I quit my job in Charleston in order to move to California with my boyfriend. We had been in a long distance relationship for the second year of our relationship and we were ready to close the gap. Choosing to quit my job last May was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made. My head kept worrying about all the things that could go wrong while the rest of me wanted to follow my heart. The thing about my head is that it’s super stubborn and very convincing most of the time.
I loved my job in Charleston and had been with the same district from the time I graduated college until I moved (a total of six years). It wasn’t an easy decision and at the time I just hoped that it was the right one (my head was coming up with way too many could go wrong scenarios). In the end, it was the perfect decision and you’ll see why in a moment. (Of course, you already know why if you’ve followed my blog for any length of time.)
I spent the summer of 2014 enjoying friends, exploring my hometown, travelling with family, and packing up my apartment. In August of 2014, I flew out to San Diego to do a tiger cruise. It was during this trip that an unexpected proposal happened and I ended up engaged. This was all quickly followed by a cross country move in a uHaul and a small wedding with family. It was a whirlwind.
When I made the decision to move to California, I knew I wouldn’t find a teaching job because I’d be looking in the middle of the year. We based everything around the hubby’s income and I decided I’d start getting my foot in the door through subbing. Things rarely go according to plan for me and this was one of those cases. I went to a substitute job fair and ended up with a job offer for a full time fifth grade teaching position.
I started the job in October after the class had been with multiple substitutes for a month. To say that things were a challenge would be an understatement. Part of the way into the job, I found myself wondering why I had taken a job before our apartment was set up (I hated living in a perpetual mess of boxes with no organization). I was coming home stressed most night and having to work on more once I got home. It was exhausting and I was not the happiest that I could have been. My one saving grace was spending time with my husband in the evening and on the weekends. When he deployed for six months, the stress and unhappiness grew.
I’m not a quitter. In fact, I rarely ever give up on something once I’ve started it. This is why I waited until the end of the school year. (There was an opportunity to quit in the middle of the year, but I opted to stay.) I stuck things out and kept with it. When I made the decision to quit, it lifted a lot of stress and made things a lot easier.
In an nutshell, I made the decision to quit because this job was not a perfect fit for me. It caused me more stress than was necessary and there were quite a few things I would have to do to maintain my teaching certificate in CA. We only have one more year left here before we move to the next place. I decided it was time to take that “year off” from teaching and explore some of my other passions.
What will I be doing in my “year off”? I’m planning to work on growing my blog into something that can help women take advantage of every moment in their lives. I’m looking to improve myself some more through my Beachbody programs and start helping others through personal coaching. I also plan to sub in some of the local schools to keep myself in tune with teaching. I think it’ll be interesting to see how other teachers run their classrooms. I love getting ideas from visiting other classrooms!
I’m excited for the changes ahead and I’m looking forward to being able to provide you with even more content here on the blog. Feel free to get in touch with me if you want to know more about Beachbody or if you want to work with my blog in one way or another.
