A week ago, I was offered a position in Teach for America's 2010 Charlotte Corps to teach high school English in an under performing school. The realization that I had been accepted to the program, after so much planning and hoping, was exhilarating. There was so much to process! From the fact that I will be moving to a city that I have never visited, to the striking reality that graduation is in just over three months--it has been exciting and overwhelming at the same time.
I am the first of my friends to have a definite job lined up for after graduation. While reading in the news the other day that 10% of Americans are currently unemployed, it was comforting to know that I will not be moving home after graduation, to live in my bedroom and work part-time at my uncle's liquor store (although I'm sure I could make manager by 30). At the same time, however, the idea of the real world is more than a little terrifying. Before being accepted into Teach for America, I could sit around with friends and talk about how we were going to move to Europe and live in the streets of Paris for a year, or go on a cross-country road trip and survive on what little savings we have. Now, I'm faced with the prospect of moving to a city I have never seen, where I don't know anyone. I have to get an apartment, buy a new car, furnish said apartment and acclimate myself to a completely new life, all while starting a brand new job in a career I have not necessarily trained for.
The feeling I have is similar to the one I felt in the spring of my senior year of high school. As the universal deadline of May 1 approached, I found myself increasingly uneasy about selecting the college I would spend the next four years at. At the last moment I made my decision--The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. I would be a politics major and I had dreams of one day being a member of the White House Press Corps (I was a little naive and idealistic). In August my parents dropped me off and I was left in a new city to embark on an experience that, no matter where I went, was bound to change me. Four years later I'm not where I envisioned myself being. I switched my major to history in my sophomore year and picked up a double minor in politics and media. There have been countless times where I have questioned whether or not this school was the right choice for me and, on more than one occasion, I have thought about what it would have been like if I had chosen another university. But I've made some of the best friends I could have hoped for, I've had fun and I think I'm a better person now than I was when I arrived as a nervous, shy, 18 year old on that blazingly hot day in late August 2006. And if those three things are true, than I have to believe that I have made the right choices and that they have delivered me to this point for a reason. This is the thought that comforts me. In the end, as nervous as I am about moving to a new city and starting a new life, I know that I wouldn't be able to make this decision if I hadn't made the correct choices earlier. I've always been able to choose what was best for me, and I believe this is the best thing now.
Last year, several of my friends studied abroad throughout Europe. While they were gone, they kept blogs that helped everyone back here at CUA stay in touch with them and follow what they were doing in their respective countries. I was inspired by this and have decided that over the next two years, while doing Teach for America, I am going to keep a blog. Next year, my friends will be scattered around the country (from Boston to DC, Texas to California and abroad). As much as I would like to talk to them all on a daily basis, like I do now, I know that won't always be possible. This blog, then, will let me keep them up to date with what I'm doing in Charlotte. To anyone else who happens to find this on the internet, I hope they find it useful in understanding Teach for America, how it functions and how it has an impact on not only the students, but also the teachers.
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