Hurry Up to Slow Down

As of yesterday afternoon, I am an official teacher!! That’s right, my teaching license arrived in the mail. This process of becoming a teacher is definitely a… process. There are so many steps and legalizations in order to be officially official.

For starters, the teaching classes are based on levels. There are specific classes that have to be taken before advancing to the next levels. It can all get quite confusing if you don’t an advisor that is familiar with the classes and expectations. Lucky for me, my advisor was ancient. He has dealt with “people like me” thousands of times before. I knew that I was in good hands, but that didn’t stop me from checking with him every few months to make sure things were in-check. One time, he looked at me like I was nuts. I could read his mind, “You again? Haven’t we gone through this?”

It makes perfect sense that there are legal matters that need to be taken care of as well. I had to get a background check, my fingerprints recorded, and take a substance abuse class. While much of this is tedious and annoying, it is good to know that teachers have to go through so many loopholes in order to be official.

Throughout all of the madness, it has been a lot of hurrying up to slow down. I would get through one step and wait patiently for the next. I wasn’t able to cheat time in my process of becoming a teacher. I have been waiting to get this piece of paper, now I must hurry to put my name in to surrounding school districts in order to substitute teach. Then I will find myself waiting again as I look for a job. All of this starting and stopping is tiring, but worth it because I am official.