When I was in high school, like most teenagers, I was subject to all sorts of unsolicited advice. The one thing I was told often was that I should become a teacher.
Now high school me was not having any of that. I loved kids—they were fun—but I didn’t want a career that meant being responsible for them every single day This was my regular response. I knew what they meant though. I could also see I was good with kids and providing instruction to help them improve in skills they were working on. I would often tutor or help with elementary sports coaching as I found it especially rewarding when they achieved their goals.
The thing about those moments is I got to choose them and I was not committed to spending every day with kids. Now I took it to heart that I did not want to become a teacher. I actually ended up spending most of my early adult years working as a Design Technician for electrical distribution systems.
This was very introverted work. I managed my own projects and timelines, and I made my own schedule. I fell into this job and I absolutely loved it. I felt challenged and like I was making a difference in the world. As if I truly found my calling.
Like most things, procedures and the ways a company functions change. About twelve years into my career as all the changes took over I started to feel a little disconnected and somewhat alone. All the love and joy I had for the work vanished and I was left feeling misplaced. I was still good at the work but the passion was no longer there.
Out of nowhere came this crazy opportunity that I had never considered. Design Training Instructor. I was filled with fear and excitement at the idea. I was not sure if I should apply as my dad had just recently passed 4 months earlier. I was unsure if I was making a decision because of grief or if it was truly something that made sense for my life.
It was my counsellor that had originally told me a few weeks prior that after the death of someone so close we should take caution making big life changes. So I decided that in light of this new position being posted I would talk about it in my next session.
My counsellor is really great at helping me understand myself. We discussed previous sessions that occurred before my dad fell sick, which had the theme of feeling out of place at work and like I was no longer in the right position. It seemed that in this particular case, this particular big life decision, maybe my grief was a moot point. I decided to push past my fears and apply for the position.
Now I have been instructing new trainees for the past year and helping develop learning materials. I have this beautiful balance of time spent with people and also my introverted side loves the time spent on my own.
I have a very supportive team and plenty of opportunities to be creative. I do sometimes wish that I had thought about adult education earlier in my life. It just seemed that every time the idea of teaching was brought up all I could think was that kids are the only ones who are learning.
Looking back, this wasn't a failure to commit, it was a season finishing, and another beginning.
I guess it just goes to show that there is good reason to try and take a look at things through different lenses. It's not that I did not enjoy the career path I was on, but I do wonder if I had taken the time to stop and think more about the possibilities if I would have been in a similar spot sooner in my life.
For now I am just grateful to be where I am at. Sometimes the advice we resist isn't wrong-it's just incomplete. Turns out the problem was never teaching. It was the lens I was looking through.
In many ways, this career shift mirrors the way I've been reconnecting with parts of myself I thought were gone.
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