...I Think I Found My Bliss

The title of this post is a pretty big declaration.  I have been sooooooo noncommital about what I want to do with my life job-wise for the past few years.  But I think I may finally be on my way to making some semblance of a plan for the coming few years.

Making sure I had a place at University before I set off on my gap year adventures is DEFINITELY something I´m glad I did.  At the time I told myself that it would give me a reason to return to the UK and that whatever job I ended up in, having a degree would benefit me.  And my reasoning was spot on!  I am going to need every reason to return to the UK that there could possibly be when I have to tear myself away from the amazing people and experiences I´ve found here in Chile. And with teaching becoming a more and more appealing prospect, securing a place at University when I did was definitely a smart move.

For as long as I can remember, people have told me that I should be a teacher.  But this in itself made me doubt whether it was something I actually wanted myself, or if it was just something that everyone thought I could do.  Having said that, whenever I have loked at possible career paths, teaching (special needs teaching in particular) has always been a constant at the back of my mind.  I´ve just never been certain.

And I´m still not.  But if I have been thinking about for this long and have spent the past 3 months working in a special school and have been relishing every minute of it and can quite easily see myself doing something similar for the rest of my life, what´s stopping me?  Answer:  nothing.

So there you go :)  I have finally found a vocation that I think I could pour my heart and soul into and get so many rewards in return.

So here´s the longish-term idea for when I get back to the UK:

1.  Go to university for 3 years and get a degree in Linguistics.
2.  Take a 1 year PGCE course to get my teaching certification.
3.  Gain some experience working in primary schools, wherever I can find a suitable job!
4.  Specialise in special needs teaching and see where it takes me!
5.  Try and find some time to live and work overseas again for a while somewhere in amongst all that :)

But all that seems a million miles away at the moment.  And that´s just fine by me.  For now, I´m just getting on with living my bliss!