Thing #44: Work in another country

Here I am, in another country, working.  Some people would call it work… and I certainly get paid for it.  It is work.  I don’t think I’ve ever revealed on here what it is I actually do for a living.  Well what I do is this: I teach kindergarten.

Are you surprised?

Don’t be afraid to admit that you are.  All my friends and family didn’t hide it when I announced a sudden career change last year.  I mean, I don’t even like kids, not really, and most of them take an instant dislike to me.

What happened was that one dreary wet day in Ireland I was about to impulse buy an iron when I just stopped cold and thought Is this my life?   The reason I moved was that simple: I realised I wanted change.  I am totally not one of those people who resist change.  Change is gooooooood.  So I listened to the voice in my head (Oprah?), put that iron right back on the shelf where it belonged and made some shit happen.  Change, then, meant moving to the UAE and teaching Kindergarten.

It worked out pretty well for me.  A lot of the time, I like it.  For sure.  You definitely learn a lot when you change stuff in your life.

Allow me to impart some of my newfound knowledge.

Some Things I Learned (about Life) from Teaching:

1. Kids are just people, except smaller.  I told you I didn’t like kids, but that was before I realised this life-changing fact.

2. You can be happy for no reason at all.  I guess the same goes for being sad.

3. Work hard and be nice to people is a good ethic to live your life by.  Some of the most important of life’s lessons come really early on and are then forgotten somewhere along the way.

3. If you want to get someone’s attention, whisper. I know that when I shout, it’s only to relieve my own built-up tension (completely necessary) but serves no purpose in teaching the children.

4.  Good manners are important.  So important.

5. Don’t make a promise that you can’t fulfil.  I’ve learned the hard way.

6. Everything new is scary.  When you are little, every thing is a new thing- and it can be so scary.  We all have to be as brave as the small ones and do it the first time.

7.  You can make a lot of things out of paper plates.

8.  We only get dumber as we get older.  The way I’ve constructed that sentence is surely proof in itself.  But seriously, young kids learn things insanely fast.

9.  There is no such thing as a cool teacher. (Bradley Cooper in the Hangover, you deceived me!) Believe me, I’ve tried but I still end up making statements like When you behave like that, it makes Miss Thelma very sad (and yes, I refer to myself in the third person).

10.  If you want something, just ask.  Children have an ability to demand what they want with all their might, without an inkling of the possibility of not getting it.  We can all learn from that.

€5 has been donated to UNICEF Ireland for the completion of this ‘thing’.  Click here if you too would like to donate online.