A New Career

I start school again on Monday.  As in, I'm starting school as a student, not as the teacher.

When I packed up my classroom in May, I hauled my many boxes of teaching materials up to our attic, not ready to get rid of everything just yet.  If I went back to teaching in a year or two or five, I didn't want to have to start over again, which was probably wise, considering that I literally spent thousands of dollars on my classroom over the past few years.  But after several weeks of being home with my girls, I knew that I wouldn't go back.

I never thought that I'd say this, but I love staying home.  I recently realized that while I was teaching, I was so stressed and busy that my children were simply two more people on the schedule, adding to the chaos that was my life.  Now that the most trying (and time-consuming) piece of my life is eliminated, I have found that I actually enjoy my children.  They definitely cause their own chaos; in fact, I feel like they bring it with them everywhere they go.  But, I now have time to notice the sweet little quirks that make them who they are instead of being annoyed by those same quirks and by the fact that they constantly need something.

Some people are really great at being able to shut off their work when they get home.  I am not one of those people.  On the rare occasions when I was not physically bringing work home with me, I was still carrying it emotionally in the forms of worry, control, and perfectionism.  I was never content with being a good teacher; I was constantly striving to be the best, and my family suffered.

I knew that I needed to make a career change, but I had no idea what else to pursue.  All of the career aptitude tests that I had taken before said that I was made to be a teacher.  I decided to take another one anyway, thinking that my results could have changed in the past ten years.  Guess what.  I'm apparently still made to be a teacher.

As I kept reading down the list, I saw several options that were initially intriguing but that I ended up eliminating.  Counseling.  Nope, I've got enough problems of my own without making it my duty to solve someone else's.  Pharmacy.  Sounds great, but too much school.  Nursing.  Not great hours and too gross.  Carpentry.  Um, what?  Who made this list?

Near the end of the list, two words caught my eye, and I knew that this was the career.  Dental hygiene.  

I don't feel like I need to justify my reasons for leaving teaching or for pursuing something else so soon that is radically different, but when I am waist-deep in anatomy, pharmacology, or Oral Radiography II (I mean, really, what even is that?), I may need someone to remind me of why I chose this.

1.  I love people.  Though I am painfully introverted at times, I really do enjoy connecting with people, and I will have thousands of chances to get to know all types of individuals who come to sit in my chair.  Every patient is an opportunity.

2.  I love helping people.  People's smiles are often the first thing that others notice, so I want to help everyone have pretty teeth.  Also, I have seen the effect that poor oral hygiene can have on the whole body, as several of the students I've had during my six years of teaching were unable to learn due to their urgent need for good dental care for an abscessed tooth or some other obvious ailment that could have easily been prevented.

3.  Dental hygiene fits my personality.  I can still be meticulous.  Hygiene is one of the few careers, I feel, in which I can be a perfectionist, and it will affect people positively instead of negatively.  I know that I want my own hygienist to be a perfectionist about my teeth!

4.  Since everyone has teeth, I could literally work anywhere in the world.

5.  The schedule.  Oh, the schedule!  I've been shadowing several hygienists this summer, and many of them only work 2-3 days each week.  Nobody works weekends unless they want to.  One office near us closes at 4:00, and all of them get a mandatory hour for lunch.  Y'all.  I don't even remember what it's like to eat, uninterrupted, in more than seven minutes.

6.  Okay, it has to be said.  The money is great.  If I can get paid the same amount to work two days per week as I got paid to work five days per week in teaching, why would I not do that?  Less work, more family, richer life.  Yes, please.

7.  I can leave at the end of the day and be completely finished with my job.  I want to have a job that I can do really well while I am there, but I do not want to think about it anymore once I walk out the doors at the end of the day.  Dental hygiene will let me do that.

8.  I still get to teach.  It is a different kind of teaching, sure, but some patients will need instruction on how to take care of their teeth.  It is also not out of the question that I could teach aspiring hygienists one day, too.

There are reasons why I shouldn't pursue this, but as I've analyzed them, they all stem out of my pride.  I had a lot of identity wrapped up in being a teacher.  I would not have said this out loud, but I knew that I was doing a job which few people could handle, and I was doing it well.  Everyone tends to think that you're things you are not when you teach.  For example, people thought I was patient and life-changing.  I am neither, but it sure felt good to hear them say that.

In addition, I really am not thrilled about going back to school.  I'm sort of annoyed that I will work on prerequisite classes for two years, complete two years of an intense program, and get...another bachelor's degree.  I'm also humbled to think that I might be the oldest one in my hygiene class.  But, as my teaching assistant and friend always says, "It's never too late to start something new."

So, here we go.