Carly's Ramblings Blog - Style

Career Changes & Favourite Inspirational Season

30 Day Blogging Challenge

Talk Tuesday!
If you were looking into making a full-scale career change, what are some things you'd consider? Would you go back to school? Would you just pick a field that interests you now that maybe didn't interest you as much in the past, and try to get in on the ground floor? And how well do you think you'd be able to do this time around, especially if you still had to work full-time at your current position, and/or raise a family, and/or hold up social obligations?

I am still trying to break into my current career..... teaching. I returned to school after working as an educational assistant for 11 years. I wanted to be in charge of the class, not simply taking orders and implementing curriculum from the point of view of someone else. Since getting my teaching certificate in June of 2004 I have been supplying and filling in as a long term occasional teacher. With the changes in the educational system, I am finding it even harder to get into a school board that always was a challenge. If I really want to teach, do I stay doing part time day to day work and hope to one day bridge the chasm to my own class here with this board or do I go off on my own.... to a more remote area of the country to find work? That is my current consideration. I've come this far, I'd rather not back off from here, but I worry I will never get a permanent position.... and that has me worrying about my future.

I also find day to day supply work lets me write and work of my craft.... but who knows if that will even find promise either. Life is a gamble I suppose. I just don't want to end up a bag lady.

As for doing anything else.... I want to teach. I want to stay in the education field. Anything else seems mind numbing.... or frightening.

Blog City – Day 926

Prompt: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow liked the month of September. Does any part of the year feel more inspiring to you for your writing?

Each part of the year has elements that pull and tug at me. Spring is inspiring in that it is a blossoming and reawakening of the senses. Poetry flows.... but so does my urge to get outside and explore after months closed in from a Canadian winter.

Summer is heavenly. Open and expansive. I have more time available to write since school is on summer vacation, but the heat often leaves me lethargic. I seek the coolness of my basement to write... or I evade it all and go to the beach.

Fall is glorious. Being a teacher, I love the fall. It is new beginnings and fresh starts. The colours are lovely and the air holds a crispness. there is still a warmth, but the oppressive heat and humidity of summer is gone. It is easier to return to my stories and poems, my blogging and my plans for NaNoWriMo. September is also a time for local writer's festivals - Eden Mills - and Word On The Street - a written word literary festival. This year I hope to get to the Toronto one as Kitchener has folded - too much administration moved a Sunday fun, family festival from the glorious park area into the City Hall where it became less about the fun of reading and more about the authors who come - also inside not outside. Both are important to the festival, but I think Kitchener just had to squeeze out the fun bits. I am hoping the Toronto Festival will be better - it is one of the original ones anyway - this is their 27th year.

I took a long break in the writing of this blog to research how best to get to Toronto... I am still thinking about it, but I am thinking it will be cheaper to drive to Yorkdale Shopping Mall and park and then take the subway into the heart of downtown. We'll see....

As for winter, the world folds in on itself. It should be a time to write, staying indoors and warm, but it is also a time of darkness and shorter days.... depression nips at the edges and creativity trembles. Inspiration wilts or hides altogether.... particularly after Christmas is over. Supply teaching generally picks up then so my writing is in fits and starts between each work assignment.