Archive for year: 2021

When I woke up the morning of December 22, 2010, the world came closing in on me. I was leaving Springfield, my home for the past 11 years, all my friends and family, and moving 500 miles north to a place where I didn’t know anyone or anything…alone. I thought I had to be insane to do this. How was I to find an apartment in 10 days? Most of my furniture I could handle on my own, but the bigger stuff…how was I going to move it from the truck into my new place? How was I going to move that far away? U-Haul? Hire a moving company? How was I going to afford this move? All the details of the move overwhelmed and suffocated me.

Waves of glorious excitement and crippling fear crashed over me for the next 12 days. I couldn’t envision what my life would look like past January 2, the day I would drive north and begin my new life in Austin as college faculty. While I was being given the opportunity I had hoped for, my future appeared as a black void in my head.

I celebrated Christmas with my family. I was barely able to talk about my new career move and upcoming relocation. Thinking about the move to Austin made me cry. While I knew the career move was the right thing to do, I was terrified by all the other changes that came with it. I was given the chance to wash my life clean in the Minnesota snow, reinvent myself, and pursue the career of my dreams, but I was frozen in fear.

I wasn’t really moving to Austin alone, even if it felt like I was. I was surrounded by people who loved and supported me the whole way. I had time over the holiday break to catch up with two old friends, Scott and Lara, back home who let me unload some of my concerns and get my head together. My family was excited about my new job and offered support in any way they could. My friends, Susan and Jessica, came to my house a couple of days after Christmas to help me pack boxes and decide what would go with me in the car and what would be loaded into the U-Pack truck to arrive in Austin about a week after I did. Co-workers celebrated my move and bid me farewell at my favorite bar, The Mudd Lounge. More friends came over and helped me load the truck on December 31. My friend, Heather, connected me with a church group in Austin that could help me unload my stuff from the truck when it arrived. Tammy listened to me as I cried and swept the empty living room of the 2-bedroom bungalow that had been my safe haven for the past year. I even managed to find an apartment in Austin and arranged to sign the lease when I rolled into town.

In The Alchemist, it says, “…when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it.”  All the pieces that fell together in those 12 days are evidence that this statement is true.

On January 2, I woke to a young year and a fresh start. I wrote in my journal that morning:

“Goodbye, Missouri.

For 30 years I have called you home. Now I leave for a new home and a new life. Thank you for the walks, time on the river, and beautiful places I’ve lived.

Dear Minnesota,

Please be kind to me and let me get some good winter gear before you baptize me in snow.”

 

 

I headed north that morning with my car full of plants, clothes, and a few other items to get me by until the rest of my stuff arrived. I was a mix of sadness and excitement as I headed up Highway 13 and eventually I-35. I pulled over twice in Iowa to cry. Everything looked so new, so fresh. Life was new and unknown…and full of potential.

 

This is part 2 of a 3-part blog.

If you missed Part 1, click here to read it.  If you are ready to read part 3, click here.

In the last month of 2009, I was newly divorced, highly dissatisfied in my job as an environmental scientist, and trying to figure out my next steps in life. Fortunately, I had landed in a wonderful little 2-bed, 1-bath bungalow on the north side of Springfield, Missouri. There, I worked to heal from the end of my marriage, determine my next career move, and generally reinvent my life. The next year would bring more change than I could ever have imagined.

I began applying for different employment in the spring of 2010; however, they were all environmental jobs and I didn’t want to work in that industry anymore. My passion didn’t lie there and I didn’t want to move and take a job that I didn’t enjoy. I was tired of having a job. I wanted a career. I wanted something I was excited to get up and do in the morning, not something that provided me a paycheck with a side of dread.

That fall, I tutored a couple of high school students in chemistry. One evening, as I tutored one of these students in the library in downtown Springfield, I had an epiphany. The student asked me to explain the octet rule to him. I launched headlong into an advanced explanation of bonding theory without realizing what I was doing. My student was totally confused. When I realized my error, I apologized and simplified my explanation to “atoms like to have 8 electrons to be happy.” At that moment, I felt a fire ignite in me that I hadn’t experienced in a long time. I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to teach. I had to teach. I felt it was what I was put on this earth to do.

This wasn’t my first experience teaching. I tutored English in high school, worked for 2 years as a tutor in college, and taught chemistry classes as a graduate student both at Southwest Missouri State University (now Missouri State University) and Ozarks Technical and Community College. I really enjoyed working with the students, showing them how chemistry is interesting and fun (trust me, it is), and helping them grown and learn. After graduating with my master’s, I looked into teaching; however, there were no full-time teaching positions available at the local colleges and universities where I lived. I also didn’t want to teach at the high school level. At the time, I was newly married and my then-husband was still in college. I couldn’t support us on a high school teacher’s salary. I stumbled into the environmental field to make ends meet.

Now I needed more than a job that just made ends meet.

I began applying nationwide for teaching positions. It took about 2 months before I got my first interview at Ithaca College. A few days later, I drove north to Austin, Minnesota to interview for a position there. I arrived for the interview a few hours early and decided to explore the town to see what it had to offer. If I took the position, I wanted to know more about the town it was located in. Austin appeared to be a nice small town. Snow was piled everywhere on this sunny December day. I had never seen so much snow and it was hard to navigate the roads. The high drifts on both sides of the roads made if feel like I was driving in a tunnel.

After the interview, I got back in my car for the 8-hour drive to Springfield. As I pulled onto I-90 headed west, I remember thinking that Austin was a nice little town but I doubted that I would see it again. I arrived in Springfield a little after midnight and was at work by 6 am.

I was wrong about one thing: I would be returning to Austin. I had a second interview about a week later with the vice president of the college. A few days later, I was in Austin, Texas visiting friends when I received another call to schedule an interview with the president of the college. I flew high that night knowing that I was so close to having what I wanted: a career in teaching. I was interviewed by the president of the college on December 20th. He told me they would be making a decision the next day and I would receive a call to let me know if I would be offered the position.

The next day was one of the longest days of my life. I couldn’t concentrate on anything. My entire being was abuzz in anticipation. I felt so sure I was going to get the position but every minute ticked by more slowly than the one before, allowing for doubt to creep in. I started to feel sick from the stress and left work early in the day to get some fresh air and work off some energy. I was no good to anyone until I had an answer.

I got the call as I pulled into the parking lot of Hobby Lobby on Battlefield Road at about 10a. I answered and nearly cried when I was offered the position to teach chemistry at Riverland Community College. I accepted, thanked the caller profusely, and hung up the phone. It was December 21. I would start my new position on January 3.

I immediately drove to a close friend’s house to tell her the good news in person. We hugged, laughed, and cheered the good news. I then went home and wrote my letter of resignation for my current job. I planned to deliver it to my boss the next morning. My last day as an environmental scientist would be December 31.

That night, I celebrated with my friend alongside a bonfire with a glass of wine. In less than 2 weeks, I would be teaching chemistry full time at a community college in Austin, MN and there was a lot to do in that time. I was excited for the next step my life would take and thankful that I had taken the risk to go after my passion.

I was preparing for a northern migration. The next 12 days would be a very hectic and emotional ride, one that would drastically change my life in a way I could never have imagined.

 

This is part 1 of a 3-part blog.  To continuet to part 2, click here.