I wanted to be a teacher when I was growing up in Santa Monica. I was a tutor while attending John Adams Junior High School and I was doing a good job. I thought it would be fun to do this for a living. When I made this announcement to my family, I was told that I didn't want to be a teacher, because teachers didn't make very much money. I was told I wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer. I didn't know this at the time, but my grandma who didn't say a word during this conversation was a retired English teacher. I wish I had known at the time, so I could have asked her what went through her mind at that time.
When I went away to college, I became disenchanted with the teaching program offered. I didn't understand why I wouldn't get into the classroom until after I had completed my four year degree. This is how secondary teaching credentials are handled. I figured I wasn't positive I would be able to handle a room full of teenagers all at one time, so I went hunting for a different career in the real world of work. I found out that I was a much better student when I was working full time and going to school part time.
This is how I found my way into the business world. I stumbled into one job after another always getting promoted and being given more work to do. It actually took me twelve years to finish my bachelor's degree, with life getting in the way, the way it does. I woke up one morning to find myself unhappy with the career I stumbled into by accident. I was a business analyst at Intel working on software implementations throughout the company. For most people this would have been a dream job, but not for me.
I began volunteering at the local high school to be a math tutor. I found out just how much I had forgotten over the years and enrolled in a refresher trigonometry class. In that class, I found out that it didn't take much to get back to where I was, since I received the top grade in the class and found myself correcting the teacher. With the realization that I still enjoyed tutoring and I could get the math ability back, I set out to find the right teacher education program and find out all of the mazes and hoops to go through in order to get a teaching credential in California.
This was a long and difficult journey, but I wound up with two teaching credentials by accident. Now I find myself living in South Lake Tahoe, Ca. I also found out through this journey that I work best with alternative education programs and students. I want to help every student I work with and that is best done one on one, instead of 35 at a time in a regular high school class. So I work at a charter school, where I offer the one on one assistance I want to offer to convince high school students it is a good idea to graduate from high school as well as to move beyond high school to help them in their future. I also enjoy teaching at the local community college. It is a small college where I can help the students one by one if needed.
In short, I found myself in an accidental career that I didn't enjoy. So I changed my life. I changed careers so I can feel like I am making a difference in this world. I do that one student at a time and more and more people tell me I made the right decision. So here is to doing what you love... the money will come later.
Page last updated 02/04/07