Way opens: officially

Now that it's official, I can say this without fear of the internet repeating it back to me in the voice of my supervisor:

On Friday I was offered and accepted a position at a new bilingual public charter school. I will be teaching in Spanish to three year olds. Right now, this is my ideal job.

A few months ago, after a couple babysitting gigs which left me feeling happy and energized, I thought to myself, "What if I could hang out with preschoolers every day? What if I could look at children's faces instead of spreadsheets and reports all day? That would be awesome," I thought. I did a quick Google search to try to figure out what the certification requirements were in DC to teach preschool. Among the top 10 pages which popped up was a employment listing for a teaching fellowship at Mundo Verde Bilingual Charter School. What? A Spanish/English immersion school? What? A focus on sustainability? What? A teaching model focused on exploration, hands-on activities, and personalized learning goals? What? No certification required?! Hot shit, that is the awesomest, right? It's basically everything I could want in a school -- elements it hadn't even occurred to me to think about.

I sent a couple of emails to my babysitting parents to see if they knew anything about this school. Within half an hour I had a response from Bridget, mom to two of the most delightful, inquisitive, cheerful boys you could hope to meet. Their oldest, Pablo (who recently turned 4) was a preschool student at Mundo Verde, and she couldn't speak highly enough of it. Then I got a response from Sam, dad of another toddler I take care of sometimes. He is a writer, and he is focusing his next book partially on Mundo Verde -- he visits often and knows many of the staff.

This is when it started to feel like way was opening. I had found an incredible school, with the perfect opening, and my small babysitting community was well-connected.

And, what else can I say? I agonized over my application. I think I took two weeks to write it. I wanted it to be the best it could be, because I wanted this job. Really, really wanted it. I'm a somewhat superstitious person -- I knock on wood, and hesitate to speak of positive possibilities for fear that I might jinx them. But I threw that out with this job application process. I wanted to send as much positive energy into the universe as possible. I told everyone I knew about it, so that I could collect even more positive energy. I got an interview, I got a second interview. They checked my references. They offered me the job. When I got the phone call, she said, "We'd like to offer you the position of Teaching Fellow for Preschool 3." I had to ask her to repeat herself -- I hadn't heard anything after "offer."

So, in July I'll begin my training and will start teaching full time on August 27th. I can't wait.




By the way, I think I only have like three people who read this blog, but in case you don't know what "Way opens means" -- Patricia Wild describes it as "the serendipitous unfolding of God's will for a person or community." And that is really what it felt like when it was happening -- serendipity, with an extra dash of intentionality from a higher power (which I most commonly think of simply as the cosmos). Brent Bill expands on this thought: he says that proceeding as way opens means "to wait for guidance, to avoid hasty judgment or action, to wait for future circumstances to help solve a problem. The spiritual guidance which may come in a time of seeing or entirely unexpectedly, bringing suggestion for previously unforeseen action."

I was miserable at my job this time last year. I was the only Project Specialist (similar to Program Assistant) on an enormous contract, I was being slammed with work I had no idea how to keep up with, and I was having difficulty assimilating to the corporate culture at my workplace. I tried for months to find a different job. I only received one call back, and did not get a second interview.

I can't help but think that last summer just wasn't the right time for me. I've certainly learned a lot in the last year, both about myself and about how to be an employee/coworker. Maybe I needed to have those experiences. And maybe I needed to still be where I am, so that I could find this opportunity and follow it. That, to me, is way opening. It doesn't always happen when you want it to, and it doesn't always happen cleanly or easily. But when it happens, you should let it happen. It will probably be good for you.