This blog is to document and record my transition and some of my favorite stories from my move to a small town in Northern California (population 284 now that I'm here) from the biggest city in Oregon (Portland!). This was a very last minute and yet perfect timing job offer for me. I decided this last spring that I was going to move on from my previous place of employment in Portland, for a variety of reasons but the main one being that I was ready to have my own classroom and wanted to pursue that more fully. I interviewed in numerous districts in the spring and the only offer I received at the beginning of June was in Eureka. It was for a middle school teaching position and was going to be a 3-month temporary hire until they knew if they had enough students.
I began making plans to move down to Eureka and applied for my California teaching license. I found a friend to stay with, gave my 30 days notice at my apartment in Portland and started saying my goodbyes. With the reality beginning to set in, I had a minor freak-out about leaving my newly pregnant best-friend, my other two best friends from childhood, my recently active dating life, and all the amazing summer fun that exists in Portland. I decided I would just sign up for subbing and if nothing else came up in the area then I would have that to fall back on and that it would be a really nice break from the stress of my old job.
Unfortunately, my apartment wouldn't revoke my 30 days notice when I called mid-July so when I completed my summer teaching job I had to jump straight into moving all my stuff out of my apartment and into storage until I had a reasonably secure job with which to apply for future renting. I was moved out and enjoying my freedom from work and rent by the end of July. Boy was that next week amazing! I spent everyday enjoying some new thing that Portland had to offer. I had just gotten my big summer paycheck and was living the high life in the city.
After a week, I packed up all my camping gear and headed down to the Klamath River for the Karuk Mountain Dance. I was looking forward to spending the next ten days away from all connection to the outside world and just focusing on the task at hand. I was honored to be sponsoring one of the Purity for the camp of Ameekyaram and was overjoyed to have a job again after the 8 years since I stopped dancing. I was also excited to be returning to everything I had going for me (socially, if not professionally) in Portland once Dance was over.
On my second night there, I happened to be present during a conversation between an old acquaintance and several good friends. They were discussing their new jobs and my acquaintance (we'll call her Sally) mentioned that she had the new job as Principal at one of the best schools of the river. She started saying how she was still trying to find a teacher before the school year started and then looked at me and this was how it went down:
Sally: "Oh Neva, you have your teaching license don't you? What are you doing these days?"
Me: "I'm actually recently unemployed and homeless."
Sally: "How would you like to work at my school?"
Me: "Ummm..."
(This is where I was really torn because I had made all these plans for when I returned to Portland since I assumed it was a done deal and that is where I'd be.)
Me: "That sounds amazing. Can I think about it and get back to you?"
Sally: "Sure. I'll be here tomorrow."
So, I thought long and hard for the next 24 hours and consulted with everyone I had a chance to talk to at Dance. The thing about this school is, my best friends' mom used to be the principal/superintendent there so I had heard about it for years and what a wonderful place it was/is. I'd even considered applying there before but it hadn't been the right opening at the time. This time, it was the exact grades I have always wanted and I had just bought the book about Teaching with Love & Logic in Powells in Portland during my week of unemployment which is what this school bases their discipline on. I couldn't think of any better fit job-wise and nobody else had any thing to say about why I shouldn't do it, even those who may be biased about keeping me in Portland. After all my internal and external conversations about it, I decided that I had to take it so the next day I told Sally I'd do it. Within the next couple days I sent in all my paperwork online, went out to town and got my fingerprints done for the district, and had a job set up to begin the day after Mountain Dance.
I took a little time during the middle of Dance to email my two best friends who were still in Portland and let them know the news. I cried just writing the email because I am going to miss those ladies more than I can say. I might be tearing up a little now just thinking about them... (I love you both!) Trio for Life!
I also made the call to the fellow I'd kind of been seeing and that was also a fun conversation that went a little something like this:
Me: "Hey, hows it going?"
Him: "Good. How are you? Whats going on?"
(I wasn't planning to be in service at all for a couple weeks, remember, so this call was pretty out of the blue.)
Me: "Oh, you know... Pretty good. I got a job."
Him: "That's awesome! Congratulations!"
Me: "Thanks. So... I'm not coming back."
Him: "Oh..."
And it went on from there, but that was the good part.
Anyway, it came down to a few tough conversations but as I said before, this job was just TOO perfect to pass up, especially when it arrived on my plate as smoothly and effortlessly as it did. I will miss Portland and everyone and everything I had up there, but my friends/family know that this is what I have wanted and an incredible opportunity for me so they support me all the way.
To all my students in Portland, if any of you ever see this, I love you all so much and am going to miss you like crazy. I still have pictures and gifts from you guys that I will take with me everywhere to remind me of you. I wish I could have said goodbye to more of you but I hope that on my many visits to Portland I will have a chance to see some of you or run into you when I'm out and about. You are all such incredible young Natives and I am so thankful for my time with you. Transitioning to a whole new group of kids is going to be hard for me after being with all of you for the past 2.5 years. Shoot me a comment if you can so I know you've found me and I can keep in touch :)
So there it is. This is how my life went from City to Country in T-Minus Seven Days.
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