2011 was quite a year. It started at a party at my friend Amanda's house. I remember being frustrated. Just a week prior, my boss had told via e-mail that there may not be funding for my job. It turned she was right several months later. I also went out with a guy a few times who told me he was going to stop by the party at my friend's house but he didn't and it annoyed me.
Things worked out for the best. After I went home, I discovered I had drunken voice mails and e-mail messages in my inbox from the dude. We actually went out the day after that and had a good time. We dated for the next few months and we commuted weekly between Tempe and Avondale, which is about 45 minutes away from each other. I got to celebrate Valentine's Day for the first time in four years and had a pretty good 31st birthday party as well. As silly as that stuff sounds, it meant a lot to me. Four years is a long, long time not to have a relationship at all. Even though we didn't work out, it was 100 percent worth it for me when I look back on it.
In between all of that I looked for a new job, I networked every week through various community organizations all over the Valley, took my last class in the MPA (Master in Public Administration) program, which I started back in 2005. I was a member of the FBI Citizens' Academy, a committee member for the National Association of Asian American Professionals and a member of the City of Scottsdale's China Sister Cities committee and talked to a mentor weekly about my career plans. I got an incomplete in my last class from being totally burned out but managed to talk to the advisor who gave me an extension and I officially got my second master's degree in September!! I also taught Chinese on the side to a couple of kids through a part-time job. I actually went through two break ups to get my MPA degree -- one at the beginning and one at the end. I am still not sure why I even have the degree but if nothing else it showed that I was committed to at least something in my life.
My job ended at the beginning of July and I started my new job a couple of weeks later. In between all of that the dude and I broke up and then got back together briefly before he moved back to L.A. after his business failed. I started teaching high school kids for the first time on August 1, which was the same day he moved. It sucked. Going through a break up and starting a new job/career at the same time really, really sucked. I am hoping I won't have to do both again.
I am the only one who teaches at both campuses at the the school I work at so it was challenging adjusting to two different work environments on top of having not been in a high school setting since I was in high school in the late 90s. The campus in downtown Phoenix, which I totally, totally love now, was a complete nightmare at the beginning. We had one copy machine for the entire K-9 school that broke down at least once a day. The Internet was totally unreliable for the first few months. I didn't have a projector for my classroom and I was not used to writing on a board. I had lost my "nice girl" handwriting after becoming a reporter and I've been trying to revive it. The students didn't have textbooks period. On top of that, the school is a Title I school with more than half of the kids on the reduced lunch program, meaning it's a rough area/school. Don't get me wrong, on a personal level, I really connect with the kids there. Maybe even more than the kids in suburban Mesa who tend get better grades in my class. As of December, I think I'm finally adjusted and I'm finally starting to understand how to discipline kids, plan lessons, communicate with admins and other teachers. Another teacher and I are sharing a projector. YES! All I have to say is teachers should get waaay more credit for what they do. My background is not in education but I'm learning as I go. I've got five more months to go for this school year. I'm enjoying it thus far and I'm trying to take it day by day.
This is the third "start-up" environment I've been in five years. No joke. The grad program I was in Ohio State was an experiment of a few years, the job I had after that was for a program that was in it's third year of existence and this is the first year the 3-year-old charter school I work at is offering ninth grade. I'm sure professionally this is all good for me. I'm definitely more of a self starter than I used to be but it's been challenging nevertheless.
Meanwhile, I pushed myself back into the dating world and went out on six dates. Some of them were down right hilarious. I've documented that in a 10-page story for my friend Monica's Storytelling Project. I will also share that on this blog as well. It's an ongoing story that will continue to evolve. It's certainly a draft so forgive me for all of the problems in the story. It was the only way I could get through the past few months without complaining all day about everything. My new goal is to go on a total of 50 dates in general. There's no deadline for the dates. It's just something I'm doing. If anyone wants to inquire about my "status" that's what I will tell them. Our society is too focused on couplehood that I find it to be rather irritating and given the fact what I've been reading, the trend is that less people are getting married.
Overall, I am proud of myself for dealing with everything in the past few months. I certainly dealt with it better than had
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