I graduated in 2010 with a degree in English education. It was a time when teaching jobs were virtually impossible to find, so I moved back in with my parents and got a job substitute teaching. I went through two hellish years in one school district. I would get thrown into difficult situations with very few resources and little support. These never went well. I would get praise from other faculty on how I handled things, but I’d never be hired despite interviews and expressing interest. Then started working on my master’s and got married. Now I’m a substitute at another school district and have had much better experiences there, but now that teacher-hiring time has rolled around I seem to have missed the boat again. I know jobs open up over the summer, but those have never worked out for me either. I love teaching and I know I get better at it and more attached to it with each long-term substitute position I hold, but I didn’t spend all that time, money and hard work in school to be a substitute teacher. I haven’t always succeeded at everything I’ve ever tried to do, but school and work has always gone well for me. The roller coaster ride of mind games is just hard to stay on. I have considered changing career fields and doing something else, but something keeps pulling me back to teaching. I really do enjoy it, and I do not want to be quitter or a failure. What should I do?
