WAIT…WHY am I doing this again?

( Please excuse the amount of self centred I’s in this post. There will be a point to it, I promise. Just read.)

Before I became Mrs O, English Teacher , I was Miss V, music teacher. 

I spent 14 years teaching piano, violin , music theory and music history at some of the most “privileged” private schools in South Africa. I was earning bigger money than the average public school teacher. My pension, housing and medical benefits were fantastic, plus I could further my studies while not paying a cent. It was during these years that I completed an Honours degree in Psychology and a Performers Licentiate in Pipe Organ, the ultimate musical power trip.  I was miserable as sin.

My pupils were pampered pooches, accompanied by pampered parents , mostly of the conviction that money could buy musical talent. Parents sat in on music lessons while little Dominique/ Rodrigues/ John the 3rd bashed away on the piano keys or scraped the violin strings, calling the neighborhood cats to the window. 

I could not wait to stop teaching. It was not entirely the fault of little John the 3rd and his violin scraping.  My depression had reached an all time low. I was living a lonely, miserable, highly pressured life that I simply could not stand anymore.

I moved to another part of the country, met and married a VERY Afrikaans farmer, living on a farm 125 km from the nearest city.  I settled in as “the farmer’s wife”. I told my brand new husband that I hated teaching, that I couldn’t do it, and that I would NEVER set foot in a school again. Boy , was I wrong.

Nine years is a long time to spend on a farm in the middle of nowhere, trying to keep busy. Especially if you’re not the cooking, baking, preserving, home making type. 

There is only so much reading, sewing, computer game playing one can do before your brain starts screaming : “Woman, there is more to life! Get a job! Do something! “

In January 2017, I sweated my way through my first job interview in years. The post was advertised as being History and Afrikaans for Gr 8 to 12 with some Tourism thrown in.

Needless to say, I didn’t get the job.

But the job I DID get was as English teacher in the local town. The headmistress gave me a chance, even though all of my experience related to music teaching. 

I was scared to death.

I was excited.

I was shaking through most of my first day. 

It turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me. 

I have not regretted taking the risk for one second.

Local town school turned out to be meant for me.

“Change happens when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change. “-Tony Robbins