Just Keep Swimming

For all of the joy and excitement and forward motion being made with our LTYM show, it’s kind of been one of those Just Keep Swimming weeks. I know this happens a few times a year, I know that it does, but I swear my clientele has just seemed to dry up. POOF! Gone baby gone.

It is a reminder that THIS is why I want a “real” job.

The hitch is this: I’ve been working for this Masters ostensibly so that I can teach. That’s all I’ve been yammering about. Teach. Teach. Teach. Get my ph.d and teach.

And then everything changed.

And I made some really interesting discoveries about myself and the upper academic world.

And I’ve decided NOT to get my ph.d, right now. I’m not marking it off of my radar, but I can’t do another 5 years. I need to get out, get some benefits, make some money, stretch my muscles and leap into new possibility. I need some stability in my financial life before it gets to the point of no return.

So. I’m looking at “real jobs.”

And it’s kind of heartbreaking. I see postings for English teachers. I see postings for Drama and Speech teachers. But I cannot teach. Not yet. Not until I graduate with my Masters in December and then get my alternative certification.

But some of the things I’m looking at are pretty awesome opportunities that I know I could do.

I want to combine my WHOLE resume. I have amassed a skill set that really, it’s awesome. But I think it’s something no one knows what to do with.

I have a BA with a double major in English and Theatre.

I write. I can write. I love writing. I do not love academic writing. I love literature. I love the lessons that literature teaches us. Helping to relay these lessons, becoming an advocate for not only the literature but for the student is a passion.

I have professional acting experience, touring/management experience, working with children in an educational environment. Puppeteering skills. I was a founding faculty of an arts camp that to this day is still going and still running on the curriculum model that I helped build.

I have a cosmetology license and many continuding education hours to support that. Leadership skills, and really a social working degree that one develops with this style of work.

Putting together this show has opened up new levels of communication, critical and creative thinking and I promise the end result will be not only a success for our charity, but for everyone involved. It’s pretty amazing.

Mostly though…I want to make a difference. I want to do some good. I want to help make someone else’s life better. I feel called to do that. In the grand purpose of my life, I know that I can connect, I can listen, and I care. There must be a place for me, that allows this to all be a part of something that also pays a living wage.

So that is my wish. Lift it up for me today, would you? Lift up this wish? To God, to the full moon, to the candle or the song playing right now. Lift it up and I will too. While I dog paddle through the rest of this week. I’m not in a bad place. I’m happy happy happy with the progress being made in every other area of life! So please don’t think I’m sitting in the corner eating my hair.

But it’s time for a change. It’s time. And I just need a little light to see where the next step should be.

just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming