It all began with lake effect snow...

I wanted to become a teacher before grade 10 Geography, but it was that year and specifically that class that cemented my plans. I had grown up teaching my stuffed animals to read, doing simple math problems and taking attendance, "Mr. Monkey-Magoo, check. Oliver Owl, check. Stacey Cabbage Patch, check. Curious George, late as usual." I enjoyed school and admired my teachers, but it wasn't until grade 10 Geography that I became frustrated to the point of wanting to tear the pages out of my textbooks. During the lake effect snow lesson, that I did not understand in spite of Mr. Sommers' attempts at scribbled diagrams on the blackboard, I remember saying to myself, "School doesn't have be this maddening. I could do better." I managed to pull off a decent mark in the class, but the ball was set in motion. I was going to be a teacher just to prove to my future students that school did not have to be an exercise in defeat.

My newfound drive to become a teacher was coupled with a desire to see the world, an interest inspired and encouraged by my parents, both of whom are well-traveled. I was privileged to experience the Eastern and Western Caribbean, the Mexican Riviera, Israel, the Czech Republic and Estonia all before graduating high school. I continued my education and eventually went to teacher's college all the while envisioning myself teaching overseas living both my passions simultaneously.

As I neared the end of my educational career I did what I swore I would never do, I allowed myself to become caught up in the desire to live a "normal" life, in a traditional role, with the security of a North American teaching job close to home. While there's nothing wrong with tradition, security, or being close to home, I wondered if I had let myself down. I asked myself if I would get settled and avoid embracing an overseas adventure.

My first year teaching in the GTA ended up being all the adventure I could handle. Close friends (and let's be honest, even strangers) heard my anxieties, frustrations, and failures as I navigated my way through an experience that I look back on with pride for the mere fact that I survived AND decided to stay for a second year.

I am content where I am now, enjoying my third year teaching at a great school with good students and a fun staff, but if I hadn't looked into teaching overseas, if I hadn't invested in traveling to Dakar, Senegal in August, if I hadn't applied to teach at the school I visited, if I hadn't prayed about the opportunity or objectively considered the job offer, and if I hadn't accepted the position to teach abroad THEN I might have been letting myself down.