Trusting the Process

Earlier this spring, I felt as though I had hit a wall in my career. I was burnt out and being a classroom teacher wasn’t as fulfilling anymore. Whether it was the mid spring slump or the seven year slump, I knew I needed to make a change. I loved teaching too much to become unhappy and I was not ready to begin to neither despise it nor quit. Subsequently, I decided to take a leave of absence from teaching to explore my dreams and my passions.
Be The Change Costa Rica reminded me why I had loved teaching so much in the first place. It brought me back to my roots and challenged me every step of the way to uncover my passion: to effectively change educational policy where young leader learn to become change makers in our society by providing them with historical knowledge and thus empowering the youth to become effective citizens of the world. BTC mentally and emotionally challenged us as individuals to think critically about ourselves, our projects and provided us with tools to help us take our dreams and make them realities.
In the past three months, I have worked extensively with the Global Volunteer Network and my life has been a whirlwind of change. My skills as a history teacher were sought out and I was invited to travel with the GVN team to Sydney, Australia and co-develop the leadership and entrepreneurial conference for 60 youth, ages 15-19. I personally developed and led workshops on white privilege and anti-racist training. Through BTC, I was also asked to help another participant help design an English teaching program in Dansai, Thailand. I traveled to Thailand where I actively recruited members of the community to participate in our program. I have never been so exhausted and fulfilled in my life. The idea of continuing down this path of work truly inspires me as an educator and as a citizen.