As a senior, some things are inevitable—completing your comps, feeling old when you see the first-years still walking around with lanyards around their necks, and the beginnings of the “senioritis” all over again. But the most daunting thing is the inevitability that, in just a few short months, college seniors everywhere will be joining ~*the real world*~. I, personally, am on the job hunt for a high school history teaching position, which has been less than peachy, thank you very much. Here’s my list of things that are going less than swimmingly for me.
Personal Statements
My real question here is: How personal do you want me to get with my personal statement? Are you looking for a rose colored statement that explains my love of learning and desire to impart that love onto the youth of this country? Or are you genuinely interested in who I am as a person and what makes me tick? The last thing I want to do is sound generic, but I also don’t want to scare potential bosses off with my real life story.
Getting People to Actually Write Letters of Recommendation
As with any job search, applying to be a teacher requires a number of letters of recommendation. I thought this was going to be a piece of cake, but it turns out that previous employers, professors, and coaches also forget things. At first I hoped that they were just taking a long time. Then I started to hope that they had spontaneously remembered that I had asked them to write a letter of rec for me. Now I’m reluctantly pestering them about it.
Actually Sending Out Applications
Because I don’t have my personal statement written (that’s on me) or the number of letters of recommendation that I was told was sufficient, I haven’t actually sent out any of my information to the schools. I’m banking on winter break for a breakthrough in this department.
Finding a School Where I Want to Teach
Even though I went to boarding school, I didn’t realize that there are literally hundreds of boarding schools across the country. As I browse different school websites that depict happy-looking students sitting around a Harkness table and tossing a frisbee on a pristine central quad in preppy dress code appropriate clothing, I honestly feel like I’m going through my college search again. I find myself asking questions like, “Does this school have a swim team?” and, “Will this school help me to get a Masters Degree?” and, “What’s the gender ratio?” and, “How far is this place from home?”
Trying to be a Real Person
While I’ve wanted to teach high school history since I was in high school myself, I’m only now just realizing that being a teacher at a boarding school will require a lot more responsibility than another kind of job I could have. I will be a fresh college alumna in charge of teenagers between the ages of 14 and 18, which is kind of daunting. The age gap between myself and the students I will be teaching is simultaneously huge and infinitesimal. I will be something like a parent for them while they’re at school, while also trying to figure out how to pay my own bills and cook my own food every day. For my first year, I think I might actually do more learning than the kids I’ll be teaching.
The job hunt, while it’s stressful, isn’t all bad. I’ve learned a lot about myself and had to really think about whether I wanted to teach or not. The prospect of grad school certainly is appealing, but ultimately, I think that jumping right into something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time will be immensely rewarding, as will the process that it is taking to get there.
Image Credit: All That Glitters, Peddie School, Odyssey