Change

How do we know when it's time to make a change? Sometimes we can feel that something isn't just right. The job...the relationship...the house we live in. While we certainly can't make major changes at a whim particularly when others are dependent on us or it's financially unwise, sometimes it pays to listen to that inner voice that's letting us know we're not where we belong.

I left teaching two years ago. I loved being the in the classroom with my students especialy since I was teaching a class I created. But I felt that rumbling within telling me it was time to move on. I didn't want to listen because although I loved what I was teaching and especially the way it was changing the lives of the teens in front of me, I was looking to new challenges again. Teaching anything 20 times in 3 years can do that to you especially after teaching 25 years before that. Should I leave or should I stay? I was lucky...I had the required 28 years of teaching to garner a minimum retirement check so I could leave if I wanted to.

Why I left became more clear cut that last year. My best friend had terminal cancer. She had been waiting for me to retire so we could travel together (her husband didn't enjoy travel). I didn't want to miss her last years being a busy classroom teacher.

I knew leaving was truly the right thing for me when my students asked me to leave. No, they weren't kicking me out but instead telling me straight out that my course was 'changing lives' and that 'every teen in America needed to take my course.'

OK...message received. It was time for me to go. Looking back now, it was the right decision although I missed the kids and my colleagues terribly. I did get to spend 2 amazing years with my best friend or as she called us "twin sisters from different mothers." We made the most of our time, adapting our adventures to whatever her treatments allowed.

This Monday confirmed I made the right decision. I had guest lectured for the day at the Strategies of Success classes in my old classroom. As much as I enjoyed it, I remembered that it no longer fit who I was. I'm someone who needs to put everything I can into whatever it is I'm working on...and then move on. It was time...

Glad I listened to that rumbling...