Winding Down

On Monday I finished my early morning class and by the end of next week my schedule will essentially have been trimmed from 6 classes down to 3, which includes saying adios for awhile to a Saturday class. It's amazing how much of a difference waking up early on that sixth morning makes. I used to do extra things at school on Saturdays a lot but it was always by choice or for "extra money" which made it feel a lot different. However, I'll miss those Saturday morning bike rides in to the institute which always provided some early morning entertainment since I seemed to always catch a glimpse of a few people stumbling home from the previous night's adventures.

The schedule changes bring obvious positives and negatives, the positive being that I will have more time for weekend trips again and can return to exploring the city and traveling around on weekends a little more. The last time that I had the opportunity to do this was back in early September, and I obviously know my way around a little better now so that's a huge plus. Another positive is sleep...I was definitely struggling with the late nights and early mornings, so now I will continue to work M-F until 9pm but the earliest that I'll have to be at class will be T/R at 9:30.

The negative is now that I work an hourly job, less hours obviously means less money. It has definitely been a big transition for me and I miss earning a salary as well as the paid breaks and vacations. Now if I don't work I end up owing the institute more time since they usually end up paying us in advance for things and then we owe them back. It's definitely different than what I was used to, but I've learned a lot and it's been great to work with both teens and adults.

It's also been fulfilling to teach two business related English courses and I like discussing the "corporate" side of things. I've always worked in a school and have never had experience in any sort of company. I was reading a little the other day about how so many former teachers go on to become corporate trainers, and former corporate trainers go back to school to earn teaching degrees. Could it lead to a career change for me? We'll see what happens...