The shots you take
I always seem to find myself in a pickle...wanting to try new things, take risks, live an adventure...and being too scared to take the plunge. In fact, I'm kind of facing that right now.
Last month I finally took a TESL course to become a certified ESL teacher. It's something I've talked about doing for about 7 years, but wasn't quite sure if it was what I really wanted or if I'd be good at it. Thanks to the encouragement of my family and a few friends I decided to just go for it. And I'm glad I did. But now I have to find a job...which can be a little trickier. Apparently a lot of schools around the world only like to hire certified ESL teachers who have some kind of university degree...and I don't have one. But that doesn't rule out some of the private schools, nor does it eliminate the opportunity for private students. And that last one is the option I think I like best.
So now, here is where the risks show up: I'm thinking about teaching English in another country. I have a few friends in Korea, some of whom are already ESL teachers and think I should go teach there. Korea is supposedly a very good place to work and live. I've heard great things about it, and I'd love to go...but really only because I have friends there. Otherwise, I'm not naturally attracted to Asia. And it's the same thing with Taiwan. I have a friend who is going back there next month, and she thinks I should come and teach there. She and her sister have contacts and she thinks I wouldn't have a hard time finding a job there at all. Besides, she was teaching me Mandarin while she was here and thinks I should take the opportunity to immerse myself in the culture and the language and become fluent.
The other place I've started thinking about is Mexico. I have the opportunity to go down there in August...which is actually a very attractive idea. I never really wanted to go to Mexico because that's where EVERYONE seems to go. But Central and South America have always fascinated me, and I really badly want to become fluent in Spanish. I took it for a year and a half, and can still remember a lot of what I learned, but I've never really had the opportunity to practice it. One of the draw-backs to this idea is that while you can make decent money in Korea and Taiwan by teaching English, you really can't in Mexico. However, I guess it's not that bad as the cost of living is quite low. And it would be a good starting place to exploring the rest of the continent.
So, these are some options. But do I have the guts to pursue any of them? Like Wayne Gretsky says, "Statistically 100 percent of the shots you don't take don't go in."
