More of the Same but Different

Where have I been? Mostly in job limbo. For four months. I applied to return to my former career as a high school history teacher in my city school system at the beginning of May. In June I got hired by a school I was excited about. Then for two months after that the school worked hard to process me through the system's HR in the midst of a hiring freeze. I found out yesterday they were not successful.

Ah well. Thankfully I still have a boss who didn't want to see me leave and a job that I don't hate. I like where I work, but the pay is awful and barely worth the money I spend on daycare in order to go there everyday. On the other hand, the benefits are good, I've been there for four years, I like the work environment, and in this economy, the pay may not be great, but it IS pay.

So, I will continue on there and then see where things go next year.

Either way, the limbo was sort of good. I was able to examine my life and since things were so uncertain, figure out what things were important and what I wanted this year to look like (even though I'm not teaching, I do work at a college, so my brain considers 'years' to go from September to September, not January to January).

What I found is that I want this year to be more creative. I had started looking into selling things on Etsy, and did a few projects for friends which I really enjoyed back before I started the new job process. So now that I won't be focused on lesson planning and the other things that come along with teaching, I want to concentrate on creativity in all aspects of my life. Come to think of it...this sounds a lot like a post I wrote before I entered job limbo four months ago. Maybe I should have cut out the middle man and just gone with the creative life, but I think I needed all of this drama to get focused.

So anyway. Hopefully today will be the start of a new and more focused creative life for me. (Finally. I never make ANYTHING simple...) Its so easy for me to get sidetracked though (and lazy, if I'm being honest), so I am glad that I feel much 'onward and upward' than I have in the past.

We'll see. Cross your fingers and send good energy my way. :)

I've also missed my blog friends. Even though I don't know you all in person, I enjoy reading what you write (I have kept up with my google reader and Twitter, so I hadn't totally fallen off the face of the earth) and I do consider you friends of sorts. I guess that's whats sort of weird but cool about the internet. So I look forward to being back and being a more active participant. Thanks to those who are still reading this!

Cheers!