crossthreaded

I met with a lady who volunteers with the organization for which I work. She’s certified to teach English as a Second Language. She went to our town’s local community college to earn this certificate. I’m wanting to do go through the same program.

Tthe desire to pursue a similar career began to grow in me after I saw the dedication to a specific area of helping refugees that the teachers and administrators at the adult education center had where I used to enroll my refugee clients in English classes.

This particular volunteer also works at my new local adult education center, and she confided that she is thinking of leaving her job someday to pursue teaching ESL in the classroom again. She also wants to be able to work abroad some. We talked about teaching English in refugee camps, and I pointed her in the direction of the refugee resettlement agency I worked for for more information and possible future opportunities.

It was powerful to see a lady older than myself really want to get out of her office, out of teaching teachers, and back into the world and into the classroom. That is a strong message to me for my life, to know that it’s not always the best thing to want to climb the ladder in my career. The students and the refugees are the ones who make it possible to truly enjoy one’s job as and ESL teacher.

I’m hoping that I am able to pursue that path as well in my own career and make it at least part my life’s work.

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