To my coworkers,
Almost one year ago, I was getting ready to go to the UNI
job fair in Iowa and I was scared. I was scared to be making the 6½ hour drive
through the Midwestern winter by myself, to arrive at the hotel and have the
reservation missing, to be under-qualified for the jobs that I was going to be
applying and, hopefully, interviewing for but not receive any offers, and
finally coming home without an offer to live abroad.
Then I got to the job fair and sat in the orientation for
Ivy Collegiate Academy, a small school on the island of Taiwan. I was surrounded by laughter and
smiling faces; these were people who were my age and all hired that weekend to
work at this school. My interview wasn’t until the afternoon, but I knew I
wanted to fight for the job and teach with these people.
A couple hours later, it was all over. I was able to say
I had a job offer. I wasn’t coming home empty-handed and it was a feeling
unlike any other. I knew where I was going in a matter of five months.
One day, a couple months later, I came home from student
teaching and had a request on Facebook to join a group:
Taiwan-a-get-to-know-ya. My first thought was, “Killer name!” Then, looking
through the members of the group, I saw faces I had sat with in the orientation
at the job fair. These were the people I was going to be working with.
I remember calling my parents and telling them about the
group. I’m pretty sure my dad was more excited for me to be a part of a group
of people with the same dreams and passions as mine than he was about me
actually getting the job abroad.
Nevertheless, I dove in and introduced myself. I’m pretty
sure I read that post ten times to make sure I didn’t seem dumb before posting
it on the wall of the group. I began adding my comments to the streams of posts
that had been on the page for weeks and the members of the group commented back
almost immediately with responses and “likes.”
I had been a member of a group of teachers during my time
in college. The English education group at UWSP was my family away from home.
We supported each other, helped each other, and understood each other. But the
feeling that it was going to end, at least in the physical sense of seeing each
other regularly, was unnerving. Those people had been my rocks, my support
system, during the hardest semesters of college and we were all going to go our
separate ways and begin our lives. Needless to say, knowing I was slowly
becoming a part of a group of teachers all going to the same place physically
and in the same direction with our lives was comforting.
Moving to Taiwan has taught me a lot but I have to give
credit where credit is due. I wouldn’t have learned as much if I had never met
each of you.
Thank you for teaching me how to communicate with other
people. Everyone has their own style of communication and, as teachers, it’s
important to remember to adapt and change the conversation style for each
person.
Thank you for teaching me patience and understanding in
and out of the classroom. I’m still working on this one.
Thank you for teaching me that I don’t need to have my
priorities all figured out right now at this point of my life. I’m only twenty
three years old. I know what is important to me today, but those things weren’t
important to me last year and some of them may not be important to me next
year. And that’s okay.
Thank you for teaching me how to be a better, more well
rounded teacher. Just because I’m
teaching young people doesn’t mean I have to stop learning. To be the best
teacher I can be, I need to be able to take criticism, admit to being wrong and
making mistakes, and I need to know when to ask for help. Doing these things aren’t
signs of weakness, they’re signs of strength. Thank you for helping me through
my first semester of teaching.
Most importantly, thank you for treating me like family.
It’s very hard for me to be so far away from home, but over the past few
months, the distance doesn’t seem as far because I’ve come to know all of you
so much better. You’re there for me when I need a laugh, a smile, a hug, an
ear, a drink, some advice, a hike, a stupid movie, a ticket on Candy Crush, and
so many more things that family members give to others.
So, here’s to the next six months in Taiwan! If they’re
anything like the last six months, they’re going to be wonderful.
