Oh my goodness!!

You guys have no idea how excited I am that today is the last day of school!

Summer vacation is nearly here, and I am SO relieved! It has been very stressful year for me, and I’ve thought about quitting many times!

A couple weeks ago I confessed about my dislike of living in Alaska and the stress that causes me. However, I have to confess that my job may cause me even more stress!

For those of you who don’t know, I teach elementary physical education. Many people would say this is a dream job (I sure thought it would be!)—playing games with kids all day, how could that not be awesome?!?!

I am sure there are people who love being a p.e. teacher, but I am not one of them. Here’s why:

- I am an introverted person, so being “on a stage” all day is exhausting and puts me out of my comfort zone all. day. long.

- I don’t feel like teaching fits my personality or my strengths.

- I do not enjoy disciplining kids and do not like having to raise my voice at kids. (I feel horrible when I have to put on an angry face.)

- Having redirect kids all day long is exhausting.

- I hate listening to 20-25 kids yell and scream in a gym all day long.

- Teaching is so abstract that I never feel like I accomplish anything at the end of the day.

- Teaching has prevented me from traveling, which is something I love doing! One would think I could travel all summer but Craig doesn’t want to travel during the summer—we want to escape during the winter months and that only leaves a week around Christmas and the week of spring break—both times when the airlines jack up their prices about 50% because the demand is so high here in Alaska.

- I do not want to live my life for 3 months out of the year. Yes, 3 months off in the summer is wonderful but being stressed out for 9 months the rest of the year is not worth it.

- I have been sick nearly every month this school year! (The only time I get sick is when I’m stressed.)

I do recognize the good parts of my job: not being strapped to a desk all day, having the summers off, etc.—even the pay is good, but those few positives are not quite enough to make up for all the negatives.

I am not sure what I am going to do next fall. Right now I am keeping my options open though.

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I honestly felt like a new person on my run this morning because I knew it was the last day of school! It felt as though a ton of stress had been lifted off my shoulders!

I covered 7 miles in 60 minutes and enjoyed the glorious morning. While it was cloudy, I didn’t even care! I took in the smells of summer, gorgeous views of the mountains, and enjoyed every step.

Tonight I am headed to an end-of-the-year celebration with my co-workers, and then I have just a few things to wrap-up tomorrow before summer vacation officially begins!

Yeehaw!

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Question

What is one thing you love about your job and one thing you dislike?