If you knew me as an angsty 17 year old in high school... - I don't even want to paint a picture for you, because it wasn't a pretty as far as academia was concerned. I definitely gave teachers a much harder time than they deserved and I tended to think it was much more important to socialize and work on not being in class as much as possible. If I would have spent even a fraction of the time that I did trying to ditch class on actually doing some school work...well the "what ifs" are endless. At the end of the day I had a blast in high school and I am lucky as hell that, low and behold, Speech and Debate was my forte and NAU wanted me to debate for them. Talk about a 360 degree turn from attitude-y, lady man-on-top-of-a-mountain (mascott was literally a "Hilltopper"), to overachieving lady lumber jack (another school mascott - you gotta love mascotts in mountain towns, but at least in college my mascott had a weapon, not just an accomplished grin).
So, after graduating from NAU with a degree in political science, I went to work for the Arizona Democratic Party doing community organizing based out of Flagstaff for the midterm elections. I was focusing on the Ann Kirkpatrick for congress campaign, but also split my time working for Terry Goddard, Chris Deschene, and the rest of the democratic ticket. Although it seemed like the right "next step" for a recent graduate from a low key environmental grass roots organizing background, I hated life doing it. Sure there were upsides, but there are glaring differences between issues work, meaning passing bills and reform measures, and putting all of your hopes and dreams behind a single individual, working your ass off to get said person elected or reelected. Furthermore, it certainly doesn't help when, as the Democrats saw that first week of November, you get face-crushed. It was devastating. If you sort through posts from a couple of months back on my livejournal, there are a couple "hating the world" entries which were added in the week following the midterms and the end of my job, where I lay in bed all day, watching Dexter and not wanting to get up. You go from working 18 hour - force that peppy smile on your face each minute of phone banking - days to unemployment and disappointment. It is pretty earth shattering telling your community members that despite your best efforts, they will now be represented by a dentist. Solving gingivitis and lowering..I mean, increasing the...(wait, does he even know what he is talking about or is this another episode of The Muppets?) minimum wage...who needs that anyway?
A little bitter, but that's the way American politics go. We like to keep it simple and when simple doesn't really make sense, well if we throw enough money behind it - then simple sells. I'll drink some tea to that.
I peace-d out. I knew there were 2 things I wanted to do with my flashy piece of college officialness and that was use that piece of paper for something and then travel. 1.) I participated in the democratic....umm process...and will only return to "feel good-ers" like Greenpeace in the future, for love and support of course. I'm over politics in the Grand Canyon state - sorry Arizona, I was only like you when I was more interested in boys than English 101, but I matured and actually like education now. You should try to grow up too. P.S. racial profiling is kinda f-ed up.
2.) I knew I had the travel bug...bad...also proven by posts of bucket lists and all of the repetitive gush sessions including me thinking about leaving for Thailand, getting ready to leave for Thailand, arriving in Thailand, and still not being able to believe that I'm still living in Thailand. I figured out a way to travel and here I am, teaching English to high school students at a government school in Phuket, struggling with getting students to give a damn about social studies which, oddly enough, is what I ended up getting the opportunity to teach. Yes, I'm teaching social studies, global education, religion, and english for presentations - public speaking. Smile. It is as though I fell into the perfect job. Now, I get to travel and teach students about all of the stuff that made me angsty and anti-establishment in the first place with speech writing as the cherry on top. I love it. It's totally full circle, but now that I'm on the other side of the classroom roles, I feel like the disinterested 17 year old from my past helps me connect with all of these amazing kids. We talk about industrial development, peace and reconciliation across religious lines, the implications of global culture on the environment - just really sweet stuff. If you ever feel like you need to get away from it all and you want to do something with that pesky travel bug that you just can't shake, get a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certificate and make an impact on a student's life. It is amazing. It's a great way to see the world, it gives you a job, and in my case it kills two birds with one stone - I get to travel and use my degree all at once.
I still love high school, not just because of the shenanigans and tomfoolery I partook in as an angst-y 17 year old, but because of the lessons that I learned then and the love of education that I have now. For better or for worse, I've been on both sides and I'm sorry to all of the teachers I drove crazy with my behavior, but in this crazy world that continues to teach lessons in circular ways - thank you for hanging in there with me, I'm now a better teacher because of it.
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