Let me explain

I realize there are some people that had no idea about this career change. I've always known I wanted to eventually teach art, but saw myself pursuing that after a long, and successful career in design. Over the years my desire for design has decreased as I feel my skill level has as well. Explaining to people that I didn't feel moved or motivated by this form of art was not always easy. I didn't want to come off or feel like a quitter, it's just some elements of my personality and dreams began to come out. Every since I was a young child I wanted to teach. It wasn't until the second half of my high school experience that I realized there would be more money to be made in design, so I majored in design. By the time I graduated, I lost my passion for design, and the design, market was over saturated. I attribute my lack of motivation from losing an excellent design professor, with whom I am still in close contact with. So for the past 5 years I made a career in design, specifically in the newspaper business. It's not exactly high design, but I've come to enjoy the atmosphere of a paper. My first two papers were crap shots. They had their good days, but for the most part I was unhappy. I was always good, if not one of the best in my teams of those papers, but it wasn't enough compensation when dealing with ad reps and difficult clients. Once I made my way to the DFW area I found a great paper. For the past 11 months I've been surrounded by a group of positive, fun, and eclectic people. I've been challenged, and surprisingly, tamed. My previous two papers made me into something I hated. I was uncontrollably impatient, stressed, frustrated and demanding. Although some may say I'm still those things, for the most part, my work personality has made a complete turnaround in comparison. There wasn't a day I wanted to quit..but there were some days I wish one or two people in particular would! But that's normal. After our each of our past two moves I mentioned teaching, but I never really pursued it. I was still giving the design field one last shake. Last month I decided I should try pursuing a career in teaching..knowing it would be a long, and possibly unproductive project that wouldn't see results for at least another year. Which was fine, that was in fact the plan at first. So I find a program online that will help get me certified. I graduated with a B.F.A. in design, no education courses, no certificate. In order to apply for this program I needed to re-take the math portion for a standardized test. I'm really bad at math, I know I wouldn't pass with 2 weeks to study...but I studied nonetheless. Convinced I failed, I found out a week later I passed. That was totally unexpected. So I apply for the program. I wasn't expected to receive results for week. I received acceptance two days later. I received acceptance in a program to work towards my certificate in art, not what I expected. I wanted art, but figured it would be more likely to get a job with a general EC-5 certificate. So there's no way I would find a job this late into the summer in art. I find a few, most are in not so safe areas so I hesitated in applying. Then last week my friend Shauna told me about a position in her district that just opened. She was at a convention with her principal and the fine arts director of her district out of town when she was informed of the last minute opening. Shauna mentioned me and was instructed to have me send my resume and apply online. I did that last Wednesday. I spoke with the fine arts director on Monday, received an interview with the principal Wednesday, and was offered the job today. Crazy. It took almost no effort at all which leads me to believe this is what I needed to do. This was the first and only district I've applied to. I wasn't even expecting to pass the math test more less have a job for the Fall! I can't really fight it I guess which is good because I no longer want to. I'm surrendering myself to the teaching Gods and cannot wait to meet my students, and make a long-term career out of this. Once I have taught art for a few years I plan on getting my Advanced Placement certification and utilizing that when an opportunity arises. Until then, wish me luck. This has been so easy and simple and I feel really blessed and encouraged to make the best of it and appreciate the opportunity to teach kids about art. This means a lot to me since I was always the kid good at art. I wasn't a musician, or athlete..I didn't feel like I had much to offer other than my drawings. Now I get to instill a working knowledge and passion into young artists and let them know the arts are just as important and special than anything else their peers may be doing.