My journey began 4 years ago. I finally left NY to live on the Western Coast; Portland, Oregon, a great transition ping point for those going through transitional periods in their lives. It was an erratic and yet enlightening educational experience on life.
I reached a point where I yearned for more meaning to my life; this probably happens multiple times over a lifespan. But I wanted to feel fulfilled rather than drained at the end of a monotonous work day, even to be drained and yet feel fulfilled would have been wonderful. I didn’t have enough time for family, friends or things that I cared to do. My life orbited around a work life that seemed to perpetually weigh me down.
I left Portland behind to begin a new adventure; to travel abroad. But how do you support a life of travel? I am not a woman of wealth. I work to live. So I decided that teaching English abroad might be a way of supporting a lifestyle of travel as well as satisfy the need to have a job that is worth it. Granted the heydays of ESOL are over, I have hope that everything will work out.
I have learned that like the bluebird I am not a solitary flyer. But I am lucky enough to have a partner with the same yearnings. We both left Portland together and enrolled in a CELTA course in New York. The course was intense and amazing. It definitely confirmed that teaching is what I need to be doing. And I would recommend the program to anyone looking to get into ESOL teaching or even just to improve on your teaching skills.
