New Challenges: Stepping Out of My Comfort Zone

Summer school, promotion, and retention lists are done. Textbook and classroom inventories are done. I wrote the same thing on the classroom repair list that I always do, “please repair the window.” That thing has been broken for years. Grades are complete. The grade book has been turned in. I’ve done everything to end my eighteenth year of teaching. It was bittersweet, though, because I am leaving for a new school. In case you didn’t catch that, I have been at the same school for the past 18 years. The same school system I attended from primary school all the way to high school. Some of the teachers who taught me became my colleagues. I have worked with former students, taught my classmates’ children, and taught my students’ children. I have literally been home all of my life. Now, after all of this time, I am leaving home. My old classroom will soon belong to someone else.

Telling my coworkers and was hard.  A lot of them were shocked.  The closer we got to the last day, the harder it was to fight back the tears, but I didn’t cry.  They wished me well.  My team took me to lunch.  My students were really cute about it.  After yelling at me for leaving, they planned a goodbye party for me.  I’m going to miss them all.

So, what prompted this move? Back in January, I received a text from a friend.  It said, “Hey, are you ready for a change?” I knew exactly what she was saying.  I took about five minutes before I replied, “yes.”  Turns out there was going to be an opening at the school where she teaches.  She wanted to know how I would feel about leaving my current school for someplace new.  In that five minutes I took to think, the first word that came to mind was change. The second was challenge.  Those two words had been in my vocabulary a lot more since my marriage fell apart. Dealing with the aftermath of my then husband’s behavior was quite a challenge for me and caused a big change in my every day life.  I then thought to myself, “my life has been nothing but a series of changes for the past six months, why not grab the bull by the horns and do it.”

You see, I’ve always been that one to tell others, especially my children and students to embrace change and to face challenges.  I just never applied that to my life very much.  I have a terrible habit of staying in my comfort zone. I ran away from things that made me uncomfortable. I did not allow myself to grow out of fear.  That is how I remained in one school for 18 years, teaching the same subject to seventh grade students. After saying yes, she recommended me to her principal.  He contacted me for an interview. I went and I killed it.  There was only one drawback. I’ve been teaching life science, what I call baby biology, all of this time.  I was told during the interview that I would teach 8th grade physical science.  I would also have a 9th grade physical science honors class.  Inside, I was a mess.  I was thinking to myself, “how am I supposed to teach a subject I haven’t seen in years? I haven’t taken physical science since high school! And I only taught it my first year teaching!”  I immediately became uncomfortable. In that moment, I shook it off and decided to take the bull by the horns.  As a result, I now have to take the high school certification tests for science.  Then, I decided to really get crazy and apply to school to start my specialist, which will take 13 months.

So, this summer, July 1, I will be a student again. Then in August, I will begin teaching a subject I haven’t taught in 17 years. I’m very uncomfortable, but happy and excited for the new challenges I will soon face.

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