After returning from my somewhat disastrous cruise ship work experience (if you don't already know, don't ask) I decided that I would once and for all work towards becoming a teach and move to Florida, which I have wanted to do for a very long time. However, once in Florida, I began to experience the same weak economy that was hurting millions of people across the country.
My original plan was to become a substitute teacher once I got to Florida. I would then pursue education classes with the hopes of landing a full time teaching jobs. Although I made it through the first stage of the substitute application process, my plans were altered for me when I found out that the school systems I were applying for had an abundance of substitute applicants and not enough money in their budgets to use them. To add insult to injury, I was also unable to obtain any type of loan that would allow me to pursue graduate education courses.
This series of events had me asking myself questions about what I should be doing with my life. The one thing I knew that I didn't want to do was to go back to my previous career in video production and editing. I knew that even though my plans had been changed, I still wanted to pursue my goal of teaching.
Around this same time, I began to ponder the possibilities of teaching English abroad. To me this would not only allow me to directly enter into the field of teaching, but would also allow me to pursue my passion for travel. Although making the decision to give up my plans of becoming a licensed teacher in Florida to pursue a career of teaching and traveling may like a huge step, because it is, it was actually a fairly easy decision for me.
Because of my brief stint on the cruise ship a couple of months prior, I had already given up many of the objects and financial responsibilities that commit a person to one place. I had no car, no apartment, no job and very few possessions. I knew that if I stayed here and tried to follow my original plans of teaching in Florida, I would quickly regain many of the items I had previously gotten rid of, making it much harder for any future round the world travel. Also, like many other kids in their mid 20s, I knew that I was still not ready to settle down and join the status-quo.
So that pretty much gets us to this point. I've been through the interview process and already have a school assigned to me in Incheon, a city about an hour outside of Seoul. I'm due to leave in about three or four weeks, but still have a lot to do. I'm hoping to get my visa processed this week, but am very nervous because I keep hearing extremely conflicting stories about this process. I also want to begin planning my lessons, but am so preoccupied with everything else I haven't really given anything that's job related much thought.
Anyway, I'm sure that's enough for today. An extra thank you goes out to those people that actually made it to the end of this post. You must be really board. Thanks for reading.
JW
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