Goodbye wonderfully boring job

Yesterday I quit my job at the software company. It sucked because everyone there was so incredibly nice but it was just time for me to move on. I am really enjoying teaching ESL but it requires a lot more from me than I imagined and for the past two weeks I have dreaded going to the software job and have even considered calling in with some lame excuse for why I couldn't show up that day. If that happens two weeks in a row, clearly there is something wrong. Plus school starts today so I don't know how I'd have time to do both jobs plus school plus family stuff. Something had to give and that job was the least valuable to me so I let it go. Oh how I'll miss being paid a shit-load of money to sit at a desk, drink espresso, and make jokes for the executives.

The ESL job is going great though. I remember jobs in the past that I have loved. I particularly loved being a paralegal but I was always looking for something more. It occurred to me this week, when an assistant ESL teacher was complaining about both the ESL classes and Catholic Charities, that I had nothing bad to say about either. I love the students, I love the classrooms, I love the other employees, I love teaching. That was when I realized that I am in the perfect line of work for myself. I have often looked around at friends and family who have held down jobs for years and wondered how they could stand doing the same thing over and over again every single day. Well, now I think I understand. Although I've been teaching ESL since January I've only been doing it five days a week for a month. There aren't a lot of things I would consider doing that force me out of bed before seven a.m. every day to head to very hot, very small and very packed classrooms.

My daytime class has been running right around thirty students. Every day somebody different from Catholic Charities swings by to check out how and why there are so many students in that teeny-tiny space. They've even been talking about splitting up the class so that there is an opportunity for more individualized attention for every student. I suggested that instead of doing that why don't I just pull the folks who can't read out of the main classroom twice a week for reading lessons and on those days the more advanced students can work on grammar or something. So they have offered me a couple of volunteer assistants a couple of times a week to try. And as exciting as that is, I honestly have no idea if I'll be able to teach anyone how to read. I taught Jack how to read but I'm convinced he mostly learned that skill through osmosis.

So needless to say, my life is good. My family is happy, school starts today, my husband supports me and my decisions, my cat is the cutest cat in the world, and I have a lovely air-conditioned house where I can while away all of my free minutes - even if that's only ten minutes a day.