At 40 years old, I feel as if I have finally found my calling! BUT it has been a fight to reach this point in my life. It has been the fight of my life! As aforementioned in many of my previous blog posts, I have worked in the education industry for a total of 16 years. I have known and felt that I would work with children at an early age. It has been a journey. I have been offered many positions in education that were not teaching and have thrived in those areas as well. I have not been 100% happy with my teaching journey in a very long time! In fact I have been miserable. Not because of my students or workload, but miserable because I have not been in touch with who I am until now. In touch with who I really am to the core. In touch with the woman that Christ created me to be. Holding on to past hurts and carrying around a lot of baggage. In addition to that, there was no support from my leadership team nor other co-workers. I resigned from my ESL teaching position in June of 2016. It was time to go because I was finding out that if I couldn't be true to myself, how could I teach young children how to. At that time, I had been in the classroom on and off a total of about 10 years. I have also received education experience as an Assistant Director for a preschool for a year in Pembroke Pines, FL and worked at The University of Virginia at The Curry School of Education. After working there a few years, God led me right back into the classroom.
After I quit my teaching position in 2016, I went to work, on MYSELF! It all started with journaling. I started attending church on a regular basis and I would take notes during every service. I started implementing what I heard into my everyday life. I started seeing a therapist on a regular basis. I started reaching out to family more and addressing my issues more and more. I began to EXERCISE on a regular basis. I would bring workout clothes and shoes to work with me. I was consistent with this routine for about 2 or 3 years. My mental health improved but I still had a lot of work to do.
One thing I learned how to do was to REST! Society tends to make us think that working like a maniac equals success. So far from the truth. We need REST! Rest is the precursor to any kind of elevation in life. I doesn't come from working all the time. It's fine to have an outlet like work in our daily lives but if you notice, success doesn't come when we are stressed. It comes when we are at rest. True rest comes when our spirit rests in our Savior. I love that part of being a child of God. My pursuit in obtaining the things that God wants me to be, do and have will continue as long as I am living. I quit my job and went to work AND that's the best decision I've ever made!
