In Which A New Adventure Commences

I'm reluctant to really say anything this early in the game, but the news will start slipping out as things progress, so...here you go:

I am kinda-sorta back among the gainfully employed. And--the appropriateness of this will not be lost on any of you who know all about Mr. Swimmy--my new employer will be a duck.

It has finally sunk in that education is an ongoing mess of budget cuts and bureaucracy, and that my chances of 1) getting a position and 2) finding any sort of stability in that position are very slim. My unemployment runs out in June. It's been a "fun" two year break from the daily grind, but with time running out and things being as they are, I have to turn to other avenues.

So today, I signed some papers, enrolled in an online course, and I am now the newest trainee for the local Aflac office.

The earning potential in selling Aflac is huge--of course, it will first take a lot of learning, a lot of work, and a lot of initial rejection as I learn my way around things. I am terrified, to say the least. But I'm also using positive visualization tools to help see myself as successful in the industry, and taking my career switch one day, one step, at a time.

This afternoon, I had to stop by my storage unit. I opened a box that I keep my music in and found a few Chinese New Year things from a lesson I taught many years in my career. My heart felt heavy as I wondered to myself what I should do with the boxes of teaching stuff I have lovingly used and kept over the last decade. I won't get rid of it, but it makes me sad that I won't be using it any time soon, too. I hate leaving a career I love and that I'm good at, and I also felt a lot of anger at the woman who pushed me away from it in 2010. But that's not productive. What happened, happened. It is what it is. I have to make what I can from it and that's exactly what I'll do.

So I put one foot in front of the other and keep moving forward. Maybe in a few years, education will be on the upswing again, and if I find I want to go back, I can go back. But then, maybe I'll be so happy with what I'm doing, and the excellent money that is to be had in it once you really get going, that I'll decide to keep going with it.

That's the really cool thing about life--you are allowed to change your path. You don't have to be stuck.

So wish me luck. I'm thinking tomorrow I'll head out on a day trip somewhere to clear my head and celebrate new possibilities. Next week, I put my nose to the grindstone, complete my 52-hour online course and some training sessions at Aflac, and get on my way.