O-bla-di, O-bla-dah

Life goes on.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have a job. Last Friday, I accepted a full-time position working as an assistant infant teacher in North Minneapolis. I will be working for an agency that serves a very diverse range of families and has an equally diverse group of employees! After being in training for one week, I have had plenty of time to process why I am excited, and why I am less than excited. These are listed below, partly for my benefit, but it will help you know more about what I will be doing!

Reasons why I am excited for this job:

• 40 hours/week = enough money to pay all of my bills.
• I get to work with babies! I love babies. :)
• The agency really cares about all-around excellence and provides great services for many families.
• They really emphasize the necessity of relationships and teamwork as part of our job, both with coworkers and families. It will be a great opportunity for me to build skills in this area.
• The employees I have met so far are fun, caring people who want to be there.
• Our training includes a wide variety of information that is going to be extremely helpful...I am going to be so well prepared!
• I'm going to buy myself some awesome scrubs to wear!

Reasons why I'm nervous/unexcited:

• I'm halfway through 2 weeks of training. 8 hours a day of ice breakers, Power Points, handouts, and various forms of lectures all taking place in a basement with no windows. It's like being in college all over again.
• My position, along with many others, are new and funded by federal stimulus money. In other words, it is temporary and has no guarantee of becoming permanent. They hope to make it long-term, but for right now I'm working on trusting in God's plan for me.
• As I planned, I have been taking the bus to and from work. My attitude towards this is a work in progress. It's hard not to resent my lack of car when I get on a bus far too early in the morning and can't feel my toes when I finally walk into work 90 minutes later, when my 30 minute layover in St. Paul is on a street corner with enough language to fill an R-rated movie, or when I have to ride the bus home with those cussing characters. I am reminding myself each day that I do not deserve to have a warm car ride to and from work.
• Between my 9 hour shift and 3+ hours of commuting, most of my day is spoken for. I can't really do much else besides unwind a little, eat and go to bed.

Overall, I feel very blessed to have found a job so quickly, and one that I am excited for! The women training us have mentioned multiple times how picky the agency is in who they hire, telling us that we are the best of the best. I never really thought of myself in that way, so I feel like I have big shoes to fill.

I would really appreciate your prayers as I continue in my first job as a teacher!