Nerdy side note: Today is March 15th, and while Math geeks around the world celebrate March 14th as Pi day (get it 3.14)... mmm pie... March 15th is a date that makes people spout Shakespeare a little more than they normally would. Why? The famous line in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, "Beware the ides of March" in which a soothsayer (your typical psychic/fortune-teller/seer/prophet type guy) warns cryptically warns Caesar that he's going to die on March 15th. The real "ides of March" - March 15th, 44 BC was a REALLY long time ago, but if you're remotely interested in what happened, there's a pretty good National Geographic Article that explains the whole thing.
Today hasn't been nearly as ominous as the ides of March could be (or were for Caesar), but it definitely had a lot to do with Shakespeare; I had to go into the Mount today for an information session about the honours in English program. It went well. I met my potential thesis supervisor and she said that she would be willing to work with me, she just wants to meet with me about my topic next week first. She seems nice, but I'm still a little apprehensive. I think it's because the questions she was asking me about what I wanted to do were very specific and I haven't quite gotten everything narrowed down just yet. Something for me to do before next Tuesday or Thursday. No pressure or anything!
After the info session I climbed the hill (the one thing that I don't miss about the Mount is that friggin' hill!) and passed in the form that allowed me to reactivate my student number. So I'm officially able to register for classes next year. I'm only one step away from actually being enrolled in the honours program! Woot! I felt really good at that moment. The woman at the registrar's service desk welcomed me back and said that they had missed me. Obviously she was being facetious, but it was kinda sweet, and come to think of it, just what I needed at the time too.
So I got home and helped my sister with her paper on, ironically (or fitting, however you choose to see it), the socialization of teachers. I loaded her up with a bunch of my BEd textbooks as sources and helped her with the dozens of questions she had about whether she was on the right track in her analysis or not. She was dead on by the way. Apparently there's research to prove the fact that teaching is a difficult profession to adjust to. Who knew?
Anyway, I got a phone call to work tomorrow at a junior high. I'm so not a junior high teacher, but I need the money and I didn't really want to refuse the day especially when talking to an actual person and not an automated machine, so I took it. (I wonder who gave her my number...) Now I need to get up and be all the away across the city for 8:15 tomorrow morning. Woot. Oh well. So I'm talking to Vikki, helping with her paper, and reading some Shakespeare background info that was buried one of my boxes of teaching stuff when I get another phone call. This one is from my old practicum school and current main sub school, but it wasn't for a sub day. It was the principal asking me to come in for an interview for an English and Math job.. a term job.. that will last until the end of June, allowing me to get paid for most of the summer.
I quickly agreed to come in for the interview even though it will be a logistical nightmare tomorrow. I'll have to be at the junior high (a half hour away) from 8:15 until 2:50 and boot it back to the interview (another half hour drive at least) for 3:30. Not much time to spare there to make sure I'm polished and poised. THEN, after the interview, I have to be at work at the bookstore from 6:30-9:30. At least it's not an earlier shift, so I'll have some time to eat.
This job thing has me a little nervous. First of all, I really want the job. It will make my current financial worries disappear completely, and it's what I've been trained to want since I started teaching - a 100% term job. It will give me term recall for next year, and allow me to keep the term days that I've built up. If I get this job, I won't be starting from scratch next year. But therein lies the problem: I won't be starting from scratch next year, so one of my many reasons for going back to school is no longer applicable. It begs the question, if I get this job, and I still want to go back to school next year, am I doing the right thing? On the other hand, if I'm going back to school next year and I get this job now, I will be able to collect unemployment next year when my teaching salary runs out, which will allow me to have the financial security I need until/while (not sure if that's possible) I'm in school.
The problem with the idea of me getting this job (don't get me wrong, I definitely want it, no matter what I decide to do next year) is the idea that I'd be abandoning the opportunity to move forward in my teaching career by going back to school. And I really want to go back to school. Am I crazy? Possibly.
The last thing I want to do is make the wrong decision, so I'm going to talk my parents, because they're waiting for the update on what happened today anyway and maybe they can help me feel a little better about the whole thing. But, at the very least, I have nothing to lose at this interview tomorrow - if I get it, that's AMAZING and I'll be set either way, and if I don't, my decision will be that much easier. Still nervous though... wish me luck!
