Two months ago, I made a huge decision to quit my decade-year old job.
I started teaching when I was 17 and steered my focus to only teaching English about 6-7 years ago. Quitting this job was a massive move for me, because despite the many times I thought of it, I just could not bring myself to do it because I love teaching, and I still love it now. The sense of achievement when my kids tell me they are improving is so fulfilling. Plus, some of my kids were with me for as long as 5 years. But finally at one point I told myself that I needed to move on, and be ready for the next phase of life. I am not getting any younger, and I spent so much time working that I do not have enough time to spend with my love ones. I do not even have enough time to spend with myself! I am 30 this year, and decided to take a break from teaching for now.
I do, however feel that I will eventually come back. Especially when I am preparing farewell gifts for the students, and I spent more than an hour writing handwritten cards to tell them how proud I was - I knew at that moment that this is my calling. I am not sure if calling can wait, but I do think I want to try out different paths to see how far I go apart from teaching.
But anyway, I wanted to share the farewell gifts I got for my students, because I had a certain message that I want to send, and hope that one day whenever they are grown up or are met with challenges, or feel so alone in this world - they remember these books and feel better.
I got them 3 different titles of books:
1. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
2. The Day I was Erased by Lisa Thompson
3. Soar byTracy Edward Wymer
All these titles have some themes that I want them to learn from because recently I have realised a lot of our personalities and the way we cope with issues came from our upbringing. As much as we like to deny it, this is at least almost 90% of what I see from myself, my surroundings. And from day to day, whenever I have small chats with my students, I saw even at such young age, they struggle a lot with identity and communication with family. Although I cannot do anything much for them, but I hope they find some positive messages throughout the books and never feel lesser than anyone. We live in a very competitive world, especially in the conventional schools - we are expected to thrive by competition. I grew up in a highly competitive environment and it developed my MUST WIN personality which I am not sure is a good or a bad thing.
That being said, I hope the gifts I get them can help them, and most importantly to let them know that I am very proud of all of them.
Saying goodbye to a job that you love is not an easy thing. It took me back and forth 2 years to come to this decision and when I finally made it, it is more of a relief. I am emotional, but I am very sure I left the job making sure all my students are better than I first met them, and I am also very proud of myself for being persistent and passionate about teaching for the past decade. To be persistent about something for a decade - definitely not easy.
Here's to everyone who are working for their calling, working hard for life.
And here's also to everyone who never take the time to rest - take some, because you're the most important thing in your life. Nothing else comes before you.
xoxo