Taking a leap of Faith – A personal reflection about this site
When I thought about it, this leap of faith is not my first. I realised it, driving up the sandy 311 and recognising that I felt the same ease, the same feeling in my gut that things would work out ok; just like they did when we moved from the UK to the UAE.
Leap of faith number one possibly had a little more caution embedded into it. I had been at my current school for many years and, if you had cut me in half, it would have had the school name running down my centre like a stick of seaside rock. But, during my time there I had been through the loss of my mother, a difficult divorce and then the loss of my father. Add the stress and strain of leadership to the mix and you get an emotionally drained person who may mean well but has little left to give. Losing a second parent naturally brings about a host of emotions and one of them, rather surprisingly, was a sense of a new found freedom. No longer was I tied to an area because of the need and desire to be around for a lone parent. My new and supportive husband saw and heard me, he was just coming to a natural break at the end of some studying. Our son was just finishing Year 6. Things were lining up.
I bravely started a conversation and sought a sabbatical from work for a year (hence the caution… I planned to return). Then I set about applying for work overseas. Just the application process was such fun, where might we go? When an interview offer plopped into my inbox, that was it. A quick chat with the family and the interview was arranged. And so, as a family of three we set off, on what became a five year adventure living and working in the UAE.
That five year adventure, led to a second adventure at a different school and the sabbatical had long turned into a resignation. All that combined learning, meeting colleagues, sharing, developing and becoming part of the IB network has led to this second and most daring leap of faith.
This time, there is no caution. This time, my notice is handed in. There is no steady, comforting knowledge of a monthly salary after 30 years of calmly knowing it will be there. This time, it is different.
We go through different stages in life, this stage has been a time of self-reflection, trying to tune in to what I am about and thinking about my own passions rather than chasing the security of a salary which is so necessary when you are raising a family. I have my vision board, I know where I would like to be and have little, if any clue how to get there, other than taking it day by day, step by step and learning and adapting as I go. Yet, I have that strange sense of ease.
As I embark on my final term in a school, term number 90 I think, and I look towards a life that is no longer determined by the shape of school terms, and an opportunity to help teachers, parents and children in a more far reaching way. We will see how this leap of faith turns out.