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Basketball or School?
In middle school, I was involved in a lot of sports, especially basketball. I would take hours to complete my homework after practice, often staying up until 10:00 or 11:00 to get it done. In 8th grade, I started to struggle with keeping up with both my school work and sports, so I needed to decide which one I needed to focus on more. My parents talked with me about it, and we ended up choosing school work. It was tough for me because I enjoyed basketball, but school needed to come first. -
Do Another Surgery or Wait?
When I was in 8th grade, I needed to have surgery on my ears to patch holes in my ear drums. The surgery on my right ear was successful, but the surgery was attempted on my left ear two times and had not worked. The doctor said he would be able to try a maximum of three times to make the surgery work, so he wanted me to wait until I was fully grown to make the decision to have the last surgery. Since it doesn't really affect my life right now, I have decided not to do the surgery at this time. -
Kwik Trip or Subbing?
After college, I had not gotten a full time teaching job so I started working at Kwik Trip. After a couple months, I started subbing in a local school district. I worked overnight full time at Kwik Trip, so I was focused more on that than on subbing at the time. I really wanted to teach more, but I was usually too tired after working all night. I had to decide whether I wanted to focus more on teaching or continue with my consistent full time job. I decided to go with teaching. -
Accept Job or Move?
I was offered a part time teaching position in Cloquet in June 2016. The day after I signed my contract, my boyfriend was offered a law enforcement job in Hurley. He accepted and was going to move from Superior to Hurley. I had already signed my teaching contract in Cloquet, so I did not know whether I should stay and honor the contract or back out and move with him. We both decided to go with the jobs we were offered and get the experience. I was still able to visit him, so it was not too bad. -
Apartment or Parents' House?
I started teaching part time in Cloquet and was not able to afford the apartment I lived in with my boyfriend, who had moved to Hurley. I moved back into my parents' house because it did not cost anything, but it added another 20 minutes to my commute. It took me 50 minutes to drive to work every day so I started to think about finding apartments near Cloquet. I worried about driving in snow, but ended up staying with my parents because I would not need an apartment for more than a few months. -
Grad School or Wait?
I started applying for new teaching jobs in the spring of 2017. I had an interview at a school district near Hurley, and mentioned wanting to get a Master's degree in Special Education. They said they had a special education position open and asked if I wanted to start grad school right away. I thought about it and wanted to make sure I was ready and could afford to take more classes. I talked with my boyfriend to make sure we could afford it, and we decided that I should go for it. -
Elementary School or High School?
I was offered a special education teaching position in Mellen in June 2017. I interviewed for the elementary position, but a high school position became available the next day. When I went to sign my contract, they asked which position I would prefer. I had mentioned that I enjoyed working with high school students, so they wanted to give me a choice. My original license was in elementary education, but I decided to choose the high school position because of my experience teaching in Cloquet.