I graduated from college in the month of December – in a year so long ago that it seems millions of light years away. Graduating in December is not super awesome for an Education major who is looking for a job in Education.
Nevertheless, December was my month.
I had just completed my student teaching at a high school and loved it so much that I cried for probably a week after saying goodbye.
Resigned to being a substitute for a while because of the timing, and planning to get a ‘real’ job in the fall, I put myself in the teaching pool and awaited my fate.
Within a couple days I got a call from a principal on the other side of town who needed a teacher – STAT. He had a small and intense 9th grade program at a middle school. It was for kids at-risk of not graduating and he had just started it that fall. It was his pet project, and his chosen teacher had just announced she was moving to California for her husband’s job – midyear!
Not knowing really what I was getting into, I agreed to the interview.
I remember telling my mom before I left that morning that I didn’t think this job was something I was at all interested in, but that the interview would be good practice.
Isn’t that cute?
I stacked the odds against that job with lots of reasons why it wasn’t right for me:
It was too far away – “I would never want a job that far away”
It was a middle school! – “I for sure want to work in a high school”
It wasn’t the subject I wanted – “I just want to teach psychology, it’s my favorite”
It wasn’t a ‘traditional’ class – “I don’t know if I’m tough enough to handle it”
And on and on and on….
Evan Nesterak says, “Changing our minds is hard, even in the most favorable conditions. There’s the risk of looking inconsistent or like you lack conviction… But there’s more to it than that.
Changing your mind, more often than not, requires you to grapple with your own identity. Admitting that you were wrong feels personal. We have to face the fact that we’ve been walking around the world all this time believing in something that isn’t true. Even worse, we have to admit that we’re the type of person who walks around being wrong. We know what we think of other people who do that—ugh, how embarrassing!
And yet, how freeing it is to admit we were wrong or that we don’t know something. A weight suddenly lifted from our minds, like telling the truth after holding in a lie. But not only freeing, valuable too. No longer burdened by the need to be right, we have the chance to learn something new, and to better understand the world.”
I left that interview that morning knowing that I for sure wanted that job, in fact, I was praying I’d get it. I got only a mile away before I pulled into a 7-Eleven parking lot and called my mom from a payphone (it was the 90s, people!) to tell her all about it. If she was shocked I’d changed my mind, she didn’t say.
The 7 years in that middle school changed the entire trajectory of my career. And there are students I met there – many, in fact – that are still part of my life. They have a huge part of my heart …. and my gratitude.
Turns out, I did want to work in an at-risk program in a middle school on the other side of town teaching math to a bunch of hooligans. Super loveable hooligans.
I still occasionally pass by that pay phone where I called my mom to tell her about that interview. It reminds me that every now and then it’s really good to change your mind.
I can’t wait to hear about when you’ve changed your mind on something that in turn changed you. And if you need help with changing your mind on something now, I’d love to help.
