As the summer of 2010 approached, I began looking toward future endeavors. I had just graduated from Emmanuel, and the mundane routine of teaching everyday was weighing on me heavily. I began having disagreements with my principal and had little energy left. What kept me motivated was knowing my goal of travelling to a foreign country to teach English was in sight. I had pined through plenty of online materials until I found Maximo Nivel, a foreign language school in San Jose, Costa Rica. Initially, I wanted to travel to Spain, but the job market was weak for Americans. In Spain they tend to hire European citizens for the types of jobs I was looking for. My desire to reignite and refine my knowledge of the Spanish language was pointing me toward Latin America and so was my love for hot weather and exploring the world's best beaches. Maximo Nivel would provide me with that opportunity along with the chance of obtaining my TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) certificate which would allow me to teach anywhere in the world. I paid my deposit and spent the rest of my summer preparing myself for this trip financially and mentally.
I moved back to Canton in February, allowing me to pay off my credit card debt and prepare myself for the upcoming repayment of my student loans. I finished my contract at PJP, continued to run my after school program, and started working for my father's business. As a kid, I would work as his assistant, learning the art of installing carpet. However, it never really occurred to me that I could eventually make a living doing it. My drive to play professional baseball and the sight of my father doing such painstaking work on a daily basis led me to pursue a college education. This time around though, I began to see the immense benefits of running a small business independently.
- Contrary to popular belief, teaching is a very strenuous career choice. It doesn't necessarily require physical labor, but the mental stress that it causes is oppressive. I chose it because I liked the lifestyle that it allowed me, but after doing it for 3 years, I came to see the lifestyle is not all that different than the corporate path chosen by many of my peers.
- There is something innately wrong with working your ass off to make somebody else rich or prosperous. This is the reason that most people accept mediocrity in the workplace. If there is no incentive to perform above the mean, people tend to calm their efforts. This isn't in my nature. I attacked teaching with such exhausting ambition, that in my short time, I became burnt out. If I am going to approach work in this manner, than I need to see more clear results from my effort.
- My hatred for business school really deterred me from all things corporate. However, if I had made it far enough into management courses, things could have been very different. I felt like my creativity was being drained in statistics, economics, and most of all; accounting. In spending time learning how to run a successful business, I learned that creativity plays a huge role in entrepreneurship.
I also spent much of the summer partying with friends and spending as much time as possible with Christina. We had no idea how being away would effect our relationship, and we tried to squeeze as much fun as possible into the summer. We went to Martha's Vineyard to celebrate our nation's independence once again, spent time couch surfing througout Cape Cod, wasting away on the sun-soaked beaches while nursing the hangovers we accrued from the nights before. We finished the summer camping in Acadia National Park, exploring the terrain and gazing at the clear night skies and orange sunrises. All the while spending time with the people we love, new friends and old, telling stories and sharing laughs. In years and relationships past, each time I went through a life transition, I would retreat from the people around me, and prepare myself for change independently. I never like to ask people for help choosing to suffer through uncertainty, almost to the point of depression. This transition was no different. I anticipated being gone for 6-8 months, hoping to land a job upon completion of my course. This led me toward a feeling of anticipated failure in my relationship. I had tried and failed at a long distance arrangement before, and I feared a sequel. Luckily, Christina and I were able to work our way through my own insecurities. I feel this was an important event for me on a number of levels. First, I was able to defeat my selfish, relinquishing ego by cooperating with the girl that I love. And secondly, I was able to hold onto her while still having the opportunity to fulfill the dream that had been growing inside me for years before we had met. Then and now, I feel like this compromise has only made us stronger and more likely to have an overwhelming amount of success in the future. Thanks XT.
The turbulent September went by quicker than the fleeting summer, and I left on the 20th. I had a lot to learn about myself and felt an overwhelming need for change. I would be 26 in October, and the next phase was about to begin.
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