As Someone Who Is About To Quit Her Job, I’m So Scared and Yet So Excited
Some might call it a midlife crisis, but it feels like I have finally grown up.
December is here, and with it comes the end of the school semester and, soon enough, the end of the year, too. 2023 has gone by, as they say, so fast and yet so slow.
I have felt my days trickle down as slowly as honey, only to escape me like a river I can’t contain.
However, all of that makes sense, considering that next year I’m going to have the scariest, most exciting, and probably the most extraordinary year of all, for I’m about to quit my job, and I’m completely freaking out.
It’s time.
Two decades. 20 years. 243 months. 7419 days. That’s how long I have been a high school teacher.
I have learned a lot and will always treasure everything my students taught me, but it’s time to go.
I know I complain a lot about everything my job entails, but I’m also aware that I will miss interacting with my students and the thrill of helping people in their learning process.
However, my departure from teaching is so overdue.
School systems in my country —Mexico— keep finding new ways to squeeze every bit of energy out of teachers. They say they want to do more with less. This keeps us teachers in a state of perennial uncertainty because we don’t know what “great” idea they will come up with next.
And, of course, there’s the fact that I want to devote more of my time to my creative endeavors. I find myself wanting to do things and go to new places, and having a 9-to-5 is getting in the way of that.
Sure, I suppose I could wait until I’m 60 so I could get a meager pension and then finally pursue my dreams, but honestly, that sounds terribly sad.
I’m 42, going on 43. I am at the perfect spot between youth and maturity. Some might call it a midlife crisis, but it feels like I have finally grown up.
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