Something different
It was the first day of school here in Seward. For the first time in ten years, I didn’t work today.
I resigned my full time job at the end of last school year. The original plan/hope was that I would find a job elsewhere and move out of Alaska during this summer.
My backup plan originally involved moving out of state anyway, likely back to the hometown. But as I thought about it, I realized that wasn’t necessarily a good idea. I would have needed to find a place to live that allowed pets and find a job of some kind to keep up with bills. Plus, I would have had to sort out my healthcare, which is not a small job when you’re a trans person. Moving back to the hometown would have made this a little easier, as I could simply reach out to my old PCP’s practice, but I would have had to find a new doc to handle my hormone implants.
The more I thought about this plan (packing up the apartment, driving with a cat, heading for somewhere with so many unknowns), the more I realized that there wasn’t any reason not to stay in Seward for one more year. After all, I have a roof over my head. I have my healthcare sorted out. And I know where I can get a good paycheck here in town: working as a substitute teacher for the schools.
Like many teachers, I worked as a substitute in the early days of my career. I did a lot of one or two day jobs before landing a long-term job that lasted an entire semester. Back then, subbing was… not my favorite thing. The districts I worked for were large, so I often worked in one school one day and another the next, often in different neighborhoods. I knew a few adults in some of the schools, but none of the kids. I was still finding my feet as a teacher, and jumping around from grade level to grade level was a challenge. I most often spent the day just trying to manage the classroom.
Compared to the hometown, Seward is tiny, literally not much larger than the high school I attended. There are only three schools: one each elementary, middle, and high. I’ve been here long enough, and worked in enough different positions, that I know the majority of the staff in the three buildings, and most of the students. I’ve got a decade of classroom experience, spread across multiple grades. Classroom management can still be a challenge, but I have the understanding and skills to handle things better. And after three years of working with the same groups of kids day after day, I’m looking forward to the opportunity to bounce around and change things up.
So no, I didn’t go to work today. It did feel a little weird; instead of standing in front of a classroom, I went for a hike, and finished reading one book and started another. I wrote this post. And, weirdness aside, I can feel that I made the right call for myself. Here’s to something different!
everydaytrans 