Man, it has been one hell of a week. I try to avoid doing regular update videos too often since they’re probably not very interesting to most of my readers. But since this blog is about me and my life, I think sometimes I can just take a step back and talk about this stuff. So let me tell you about this past week for a little bit.
Last Monday I had a job interview. I applied for the position during my break, half expecting there to not be too much follow up at all. But to my surprise they emailed me back after maybe two days and invited me after the weekend. Obviously I accepted the invitation and went there. This school is a school that has my target demographic and it is also located very close to where I live. I can get there by bicycle in about 40 minutes on a bad day. So I went in and had the interview. The interview went decently, but I did worry that talking about my autism and some of the things I struggle with weakened my chances. I need to disclose these things because sometimes I do need that little bit of extra breathing room and if my job doesn’t know what is going on, they can’t support me in any way. So I left the interview with mixed feelings, knowing I’d hear the result the next day.
Let me tell you, I underestimated how stressful that day of waiting would be. I knew they’d call in the afternoon and I assumed it would be after 4 PM, since all classes have ended by then, but you can’t just ignore your phone for the hours leading up to that in case they call early. Not to mention that I’m absolutely terrified about phone calls in general, so that added an extra layer of stress for me. When they finally called I was pleasantly surprised that they showed interest in hiring me. They still wanted to talk with my current school to hear what they think of me, but if that was positive then I would get the job. Making a long story short, I did end up getting the job. My current colleague that talked to them was honest about my good and bad points which I like. I think I’m going into this job with both myself and the school having the right expectations.
With that all out of the way, the week was unfortunately far from over. On Wednesday we had our activity week where I was helping out for the English department. We ran a pretend store where the kids had to come in and play out a conversation in English. One of them had to buy a toy for their pet dog and the other had to sell it to them. The exercise was fun, the kids had fun and all in all I think it was a great success. The highlight of that day was the little mouse that my coworker spotted. Since we’re a green-oriented school we have some animals on the terrain which attracts rodents pretty quickly. My coworker was deathly afraid of the poor thing, which sucked for him but was pretty funny for me since I have no such fears of mice. I did admit honestly that if it were a giant spider I’d have probably freaked out similarly. Fun day, but definitely exhausting. By that point in the week I was reaching the end of my drawer full of spoons, but I still had more to go.
On Friday I had to go to a school and observe a lesson. Specifically we had to observe some case-students and note down their behavior during the lesson to study it. We also had to interview the kids. All in all it was a relatively short day, but new places and unfamiliar routes often stress me out. Not to mention that my group mate told me with all the confidence in the world that the bus stop was one way, and it turned out my bus stop was a different way. I had to somewhat scramble to catch my train.
That does bring me to the final nail in the coffin. You didn’t think the week was already over, did you? No, the most exhausting part has yet to come. On Saturday I took my Cambridge Proficiency Exam. For those unfamiliar with it, it’s an exam that tests your level of English and to pass it, it should be at least at a C2 level (which is relatively high). I wasn’t too worried about the level of English, although it wasn’t easy either. What I worried more about – and rightfully so – was the length of the exam. It took from about ten in the morning until past five in the evening. I was very pleased with the organization of it from my university. Two teachers were present to help us out and make sure everyone knew where they had to be. We had to turn in all of our devices for the duration of the exam so that was a bit weird. Luckily most of the people taking the exam with me were quite friendly so we had a good time in between the different parts of the exam.
And now I’m writing on a Monday, waiting for my next class to start. I was hoping for a short day at work but if I’ve learned anything in the last while as a teacher it’s that the short days always end up being the longest. So I’ll still end up having to sit here until 4 pm today. But at least I have a lot of things sorted and once the next two days are over I’ll be able to get some rest. Adding to that, I’m likely re-evaluating my writing goals for the year. I want to write some extra words during the summer, mainly stories and less so blog posts. And then when my new job starts I’ll probably take things a bit slower. I want to keep writing, but I also know that I’ll be exhausted on most days. But yeah, that’s been a quick update on how busy I’ve been. I’m doing okay if we just ignore the exhaustion though, so that’s good. Thanks for reading.
Opal Kaharis 