Lion Woman

I grew up on the phrase "March comes in like lion and goes out like a lamb." I asked my students if they had heard this before. The concept is completely foreign to them. Californians.

Yes, I know. It’s been a couple of months since my last legitimate post. Trust me, this isn't because there has been a lack of material. So much has been happening in my life, it’s hard to know where to begin. I’ll try my best to cover the essentials without sending you running to the closest brick wall because that's more exciting than what I'm saying.

Sadly, life is still working 80-90 hours a week, but on a more hopeful note, I am getting more time efficient with some aspects of the job (speed planner and speed grader extraordinaire). Still, I find that the “new” time I’ve managed to give myself keeps getting crammed with new things (of course, right?!).

• The middle school play started in the beginning of February, which I’m co-directing. We practice two hours each day after school (ouch). Performances are at the end of March. It’s kind of fun to work with a smaller group of kids, but mostly just frustrating due to one boy whose mother refuses to medicate him. He’s an okay actor—on the days that he chooses to be (right now, his record at choosing this is about 20%).
• We also have something called the Fine Arts Festival coming up in the first week of May. This is happening at Ripon Christian this year and encompasses all NorCal Christian schools. After some cold, backhanded disagreements, I was told that I would be coordinating and coaching the creative writing and speech categories of the festival (double ouch). The deadline is April 1 to submit entries (time crunch!).
• As an 8^th grade homeroom teacher, I get the to travel with the 8^th graders on their class trip the first full week of April (Yes, the day after FAF stuff is due and the play. Shit.). This year we’re going to Oregon for the Shakespeare Festival. Totally awesome experience, right? For sure! Unfortunately, it means more on my plate. This is the first year that the kids will be taking this particular trip so there are lots of foundational aspects to lay before we head out. As an 8^th grade homeroom teacher I get to sort that out. But also because the nature of this class trip is literature-focused, I was told it was my responsibility to develop a curriculum to coach them in all the plays we’re seeing at the festival (triple and quadruple ouch).

My mindset right now? You just have to survive, girl, and you can consider yourself successful this year.

In January, I permitted myself to admit that teaching at San Jose Christian School was the absolute last thing that I wanted to do with my life next year. I staved off that admission for as long as possible. I guess I was still clinging onto the hope that there might be some kind of silver lining or turning point in the year. Unfortunately, that moment never came, and I do not expect it to for the rest of the year. To me, it was pretty bleak to admit that only halfway through knowing all my time invested in planning and developing the curriculum this year would be pretty much lost and never reused. But once I resigned to that fact, I began to actively pursue different employment for next year—which takes a lot of time that I don’t really have. What a life!

The primary field that I began looking was within higher education—particularly, resident director positions. For whatever (divine) reason, I feel like that would be a great fit for me next year. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do without question. So I’ve applied everywhere, it seems. While thinking about working on a college campus, I remembered an organization that a former supervisor of mine always used to push for me to pursue: the CCO (The Coalition for Christian Outreach). The CCO is an organization that partners with churches, schools, and other community organizations to do contextual campus ministry on college campuses mostly in the Northeast. I decided to apply. I interviewed. I was accepted by the CCO soon after. They wanted to get me out to their conference called Jubilee. This was a conference I had always heard talk about during my Calvin days, but never went to myself. When they said they wanted me there, I thought that it was a nice sentiment but didn’t think there would be any possible way that I could attend: 1) I wouldn’t be able to take off from school and 2) flying out to Pittsburgh to attend this conference would be an expense that I wasn’t ready to pay.

God works in amazing ways, friends.

Turns out, 1) I had President’s Day Weekend off from school, meaning I had a long weekend and wouldn’t need to take a personal day, and 2) the CCO offered to pay for my airline ticket and conference fee. Wow. Okay, God, seems like some doors are flinging wide open here. It would be unfaithful to turn a blind eye to this opportunity. And so I walked through and hopped onto a plane to Pittsburgh, PA.

Looking back on it now, I’m not sure I really understood what I was doing when I agreed to go. I just up and went, not knowing much about CCO—usually I have the time to research a place pretty extensively to acquaint myself with the organization. I’m so glad I went, though! The recruiters had set up three pre-interviews for me for different positions in Pittsburgh, Washington D.C. and Virginia. Those went really well so I just learned that I was forwarded on with those positions. Now, I wait to see if any of these partnering organizations want to host me for an on-site interview.

Beyond the employment aspect, the conference as a whole was really epic thing to experience. I heard some challenging speakers and felt that my soul was rejuvenated there. I actually got to associate with some other people my age! A novelty these days! It was just a funny little trip. If you ever want to hear more fun little tidbits: like the airline losing my luggage, wandering around the streets of downtown Pittsburgh, or meeting some incredible individuals through the CCO just give me a call. I’d love to chat with you more about it. I have some funny and/or heart-warming stories.

That said, CCO is just one avenue of literally dozens of others that I'm pursuing right now. I’m not sure how things will go from here on out, but I am really encouraged by what happening so far, and what God might be leading to for next year. Thanks in advance for your thoughts and prayers. I have been feeling so much support from outside of the state these past few weeks; it’s pretty incredible.