So, so quiet ...

My working the nightshift is great in many ways, and not so great in others.  The biggest problem I've noticed is that I have no life.  I work, I go home, I sleep and then I come back to work.  The bills are getting paid, but my life is a little dull at the moment, and this blog is suffering for it.

The other thing is that I always include a picture in my blog post.  Well, it's dark when I'm awake.  And if it happens to be light, there's a snowstorm in the way.  This winter has been absolutely wild for snowfall -- I haven't seen amounts like this since I was a kid in elementary school.

Anyway, I've had to resort to trying to draw rudimentary shapes with my mouse for this post.  On the plus side, if I ever need to make a stained glass graphic, I've now got the technique figured out.

My application package for the Library Technician program at the Nova Scotia Community College arrived yesterday, and then, at the grocery store,  I bumped into a "dog-dad" I know from the Bark Park.  He works in the reference department of the main branch of the library.  We talked a bit about my plans, and I left the meat department feeling very encouraged indeed!  I'm always on the look-out for good omens, so I'll take that chance meeting and run with it. :)

So about applying for that Bachelor of Education...

I'm not doing it.

The deadline for applying to St. Thomas sailed by.  I hadn't had a chance to get the materials to my references, et cetera, because I got sick with Norovirus.  (I won't elaborate.  You don't want the details -- trust me.)

So I set my sights on getting ready to apply to Acadia -- and promptly got the flu.  Again -- stuck in the house (this time with no voice)  for several days.  And I began to wonder if the Universe was trying to tell me something.

So I took a look deep inside and asked, "Do you really want to work as a teacher?"

And after a while, a little voice replied, "Not anymore."

And I felt relieved.  No leaving my husband to go study.  No massive student loan again.  No worrying about getting a teaching job to pay off that massive student loan, especially since I know a number of fine new teachers who haven't been able to get a contract in several years of trying.

It was like I gave myself permission to finally put that to rest.  I suddenly realized that my childhood dream of being a teacher wasn't dead, but that it had already been fulfilled.  I was a substitute teacher for ten years, and while some substitutes are just paper-pushers, I was given opportunities to teach and I actually taught.  And I made a difference in a number of kids' lives.  That was the dream, and I did it.  I was a teacher.  I may teach again -- crafts, or creative writing, or maybe even develop a travelling space show for schools -- but I have absolutely no desire to be a classroom teacher anymore.

So I got thinking, and I remembered how excited I'd felt when I applied for a library assistant's position at the university last fall -- and how devastated I'd been when I didn't even get an interview.  I've always loved libraries, from the time I stamped and shelved books at the circulation desk in my junior high school.  I even worked at Acadia's library when I was there doing my BA all those years ago.  I love to read and I love to write, and books have been among my best friends and journeys. I would love to work in a library again.

Armed with this epiphany, I started poking around on the net to see what I could find and there it was: the Library & Information Technology program through the Nova Scotia Community College.  I would be able to do it online, so no leaving Hubby.  The tuition and fees are also significantly lower than doing a B Ed, so no massive student loan hanging over my head (just a little one).

Although the university library would be my dream placement of course, there are plenty of other libraries and archives where I could work as a library technician.  Even the local hospital has a library.  I could even work in the public school system, come to think of it.

Applying for the B Ed didn't feel right.  This does.

I'll keep you posted.