Christine, Wondering

Random Musings of a Human Becoming

Sunday, April 8, 2007

London


The body grows slowly and steadily, but the soul grows by leaps and bounds.
~ L. M. Montgomery

L.M. Montgomery was an excellent observer of human nature, and this quote is spot-on. In the last few days I’ve experienced a quite astonishing and revolutionary change of heart and soul that’s left me quite breathless and full of plans for the future.

It started last Monday. We were having our last Social Studies Curriculum class before moving on to the Science unit, so the workshop leader threw the class open to any questions on any topic. Knowing that the workshop leader once taught in Brazil, one of the students asked her about overseas teaching in general. Up to that point I’d been determined to teach either in Perth or in the general south-west region, but suddenly I felt the stirrings of curiosity. Other people my age effortlessly flit around the world and do interesting things in interesting places without feeling lost and homesick and abandoned. The reasons why I feel that I can’t are obvious. But they’re historical reasons, and I began to wonder whether they still have to apply.

The thought grew at the back of my consciousness until Friday, when I was at my mother’s house for a family lunch. My grandmother casually dropped in to the conversation the possibility that my cousin Jessica, who I am closest to out of all my cousins, is going to try to convince me to move to London with her next year. Jess is three years older than me, has just finished a PhD in history, and intends on relocating to London permanently.

In that instant it suddenly flashed into my mind: why the hell not? I’m young, I’m healthy, I’m not tied down to any permanent commitments, and at the end of the year I’ll have a teaching degree that is valid anywhere in the world. And if I don’t go now – if I move to some tiny town in the south-west and put down roots that may become permanent – then when will I go? Will I ever go?

My mother temporarily derailed this train of thought by pointing out that I’d have to do something with Jemima. But a quick bit of Googling sorted that out – if I get Jem immunised against rabies in June then she can enter the UK in December without any requirement for quarantine. All I have to do is afford her flight as well as mine, and if I can save for one I can save for both.

I will have to take on extra work as soon as prac is over in May, but I can do that with ease – people are desperate for workers of all sorts in Perth, I’ll just send out a raft of applications and take whatever’s going, same as I did this time. If I work my butt off all winter, save all of my tax return, work extra shifts when my course-load lightens next semester, and work full-time once my final exams are over in mid-November, I can save enough for everything I’ll need – air fares, immunisations, passports, warmer clothes, buffer savings etc. Plus I have furniture, appliances and personal possessions that I can sell. I’ll have to have a garage sale. I wouldn’t plan on taking much more than clothes, my computer, a few photos and ornaments that are very dear to me, and personal effects such as jewellery. Everything else can either be sold or get boxed up and stored in Mum’s shed.

Getting a job in England as a teacher will not be difficult. They are desperate for teachers over there and there are dozens of websites by organisations that recruit and place overseas teachers in British schools. Once I’ve got my first semester results I can confidently contact these people with some indicative grades, and I will be on my way to getting a placement.

I would have to fly out just after Christmas, as the next possible English school term starts on the 2nd of January 2008. And I’ve decided that I am going to do it. Of course, it may turn out that I don’t. But everything I do between now and then will be working towards getting to London, and if life takes me on another, as yet unseen path, then so be it!

I feel powerful and full of life again. I don’t have to live the life that my life so far is funnelling me towards. I can go a different way, and it feels good.

1 comments:

Fabulous idea! Stick with it, if its what you want, you'll get there...
 

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