In
the summer of 2013 our family vacation was a cruise through Southeast
Alaska. For over a week I watched
some of the most beautiful and wild scenery I have ever viewed flow past the
cruise ship. Rocky shorelines of
wooded islands, waterfalls and glaciers, whales and seals all were commonplace. All I could think of every day of the
cruise was 'Hobart would love it out here', and 'why am I not living in a place
like this?'.
I
began researching the possibility of teaching in Alaska as soon as I got back
to North Carolina. In addition, I
began removing things from my house that I could do without. Extra clothes and things that could be
donated or given away. Like
throwing ballast overboard my thinking was that if I actually did this move I
would need to start lightening my load now.
Alaska
Teacher Placement (ATP) is a website that has a wealth of valuable and
timely information for anybody seeking a job in education in Alaska. I found out what I needed in order to
get a teaching license in the state and the application process. At this time I still had not completely
decided to actually move to Alaska but I was getting the preliminary
requirements done just in case I made the decision later on. In October I started a "History of
Alaska" course through the University of Alaska, Fairbanks in order to
satisfy one of the licensing requirements.
It's
important to know that as 2013 was coming to an end, the situation for
educators in North Carolina was getting worse and there was no indication
things would be getting better.
Our pay had been frozen for 5 years, going on 6. The State Legislators were coming up
with ridiculous schemes to try to appease the education community which was
getting angrier by the week.
Teachers and Teacher Aides were getting laid off due to lack of fund,
and school budgets were getting smaller.
To me, Alaska was looking better and better. Well, anyplace other than North Carolina was looking
good.
The
prospect of teaching in Alaska was looking like a real possibility and the real
question was, "Why not?".
So I registered for a job fair for prospective Alaska teachers that was
to be held in Seattle late in March 2014.
At the time I was just putting my name out there to see what would
bite. As the time drew nearer and
I actually paid for my round trip airfare it became apparent that I might
actually make this dramatic move.
I
completed the history course and all of the other preliminary requirements to
attain my Alaska license.
Everything was submitted and my job application was put up on the ATP
site for employers to see. In the
middle of February I got the letter stating that my teaching license would be
arriving soon.
Next
stop, Seattle. I flew out on a
Friday night. Saturday morning I
walked into the job fair in dress slacks, button-up shirt and tie, with
briefcase in hand. I still was not
100 percent sure I wanted to move to Alaska to teach but I was not going to
hinder my chances of being allowed to make the choice myself. The fair started at 8:30 and by 9:00 I
had three interviews lined up.
All
three interviews went very well.
When I sat down to talk I was ready with a portfolio of my experience as
a teacher, a professional resume', and a map atlas of Alaska in which I had
circled every school in every district I considered viable choices for me. Most important, I had my Alaska
teaching certificate in hand. In
each interview I made it clear that my dog Hobart and me were a package deal
and I had to be assured that he would be as welcome as I to this new job.
Interviewers
had to know I was serious about getting a job, unlike many of the other fair
attendees who looked they might have just taken a few moments to come in off of
the cold, rain-soaked street to see what was happening at the hotel conference
room. They were surprised to learn
that I had flown to Seattle just to attend this event. And they were visibly impressed that I
was so well prepared.
When
lunchtime rolled around I had been offered three jobs. As I walked to the Denny's down the
street from the hotel it occurred to me that it was time for me to decide if I
was actually going to move Hobart and myself 4,500 miles across the U. S. to
the cold, dark north. I could have
turned all the offers down and been on a plane back home the next morning. That would have been the easier of the
choices, and I would have spent the rest of my life wondering "what
if?". Over a plate of waffles
and iced tea I decided to take the plunge and see what happens next.
Back
at the hotel I resolutely told the first interviewer that I accept his
offer. We sat down and he filled
me in on details of my upcoming employment. We talked a little more in the time he had left before his
next appointment and then I returned to my room, changed clothes and walked
around a drizzly Seattle until long past dark thinking about the many things I
had to do to get Hobart and me ready for the move.
It
was exciting and scary. I could
have just made a big mistake, but then I have always made the best of the
situations I have put myself in; joining the Army, getting myself deployed to Afghanistan, cutting my toenail too short, to name a few. Thoreau said "The mass of men lead
lives of quiet desperation".
I would rather not be counted in that number if it is at all up to
me. A question I have asked myself
when faced with a life changing decision,
"What if Huck had never gotten on the raft?", referring to
Mark Twain's book "Huckleberry Finn". I would hate to think that I was offered a chance for a
great adventure and did not take it.
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