So I graduated. . . I’ve shared before the crazy story of how God brought me to grad school and helped me every step of the way. Today, I’m going to update that story a bit. At the time I had no idea how I was going to get through and graduate, and here I am today. This is the post that I previously wrote.
I graduated with an undergraduate degree in English and I always felt that I was supposed to get my master’s and become a teacher.
I mentioned this to one of my undergraduate professors, and she told me that my GPA was too low for me to get into graduate school and that I would only be hurting my students if I became a teacher.
So I believed that. . .
After college, I got a job working at a Christian school. Those kids there made me laugh every day, and made me want to become a teacher even more, but I still did not think I could get into graduate school.
I looked into several different schools, and eventually found one with a good program. . .but again I did not think I could get in.
I reached out to one of the advisors of the school to see if it was even worth applying, and she told me that several students get in who have low undergraduate GPA’s and she encouraged me to apply.
So on Christmas eve of 2019, I applied just to see if I would get in.
Sure enough, I got in. I still don’t even know how. . .there was only one problem. . .
I was a few credits short of being accepted into the program. I had to take several classes to catch up.
I was a few days late to meet the deadline to sign up for these classes, but my advisor worked with me to help me get in. I started these classes in September 2020. I had one goal. . .I had to somehow get enough credits to be accepted into the program by February.
I worked really really hard on these classes and got a 4.0 GPA, but then there was another problem. Even though I worked really hard, I was still a few credits short of being able to be accepted into the program.
I emailed my advisor and explained the situation and expected them to tell me to wait a year. . .however they told me that they could see that I was working really hard, and they let me into the program even though I was missing those credits.
There have been so many times in this program that God has helped me. I don’t have any explanation for any of that other than, God brought me here.
I have no doubt in my mind that God has called me into this graduate program. I do not think so many doors would have opened if it was not God.
That definitely does not mean it was easy, but God has always been there.
So now as I am facing these educator exams, I am wondering to myself, what will God do next? Will I be able to add this to the crazy story of grad school?
That was the post that I wrote previously as I was facing educator exams. Sure enough, I can add it to my crazy story of how God helped me through grad school. At that point I had no idea how I was going to pass, or how student teaching was going to work out. God came through and helped me every step of the way.
I started studying for educator exams about a year ago. I had so much anxiety leading up to this exam, I couldn’t sleep well for several weeks. I’ve never been the best tester, so I knew that this was something that I couldn’t do on my own. God helped me to pass this exam with a high score.
I started studying for the next exam. Again I had so much anxiety for this exam that I could not sleep. . .unfortunately I did not pass this test the first time. What was worse was I knew all the material, and could pass practice exams at home, but I did not pass the test when I had to take in at the testing center.
I did not know what I had to do next other than pray. I knew that there was no way I could pass this without God. Sure enough God worked it out so I could retake the test, this time at home on my own computer. That definitely causes less anxiety, but it also caused other anxiety. What if the internet cuts out? What if someone randomly comes over? But God worked everything out. I took the test at home. I was definitely still anxious, but a lot less anxious than I would have been at the testing center. I passed my last educator exam only by God.
Then came student teaching. Since I worked as a substitute teacher the previous year, I have been in almost every school in the county. I knew which schools I wanted to be in for student teaching (and which schools I wanted to avoid.) I requested my favorite school for student teaching, only to get rejected. They did not have a placement available at this school.
I was upset about it, but God told me I would get paid for student teaching. I was confused what that meant. Student teaching is a class, why would I get paid to take a class?
There was a school in the area looking for a long-term English substitute teacher. This happened to be my field, and I had substitute teaching experience and a substitute teaching license so it worked out. I got paid for about 1/2 of my student teaching experience.
I couldn’t have asked for a better placement or a better cooperating teacher and I got paid, which is definitely something that only God could work out.
There is so much more to that story that I can’t really share on the internet just because I don’t want to give out details about the situation, but God knew that I needed to be at this school.
After student teaching there’s the question of what’s next?
Literally every school needs substitute teachers right now, so finding a job isn’t the problem. . .the thing is I hate being a general substitute.
I hate going to a different class every day and teaching a different subjects to students I have never met before and I definitely did not enjoy working at elementary schools. (God did not make me an elementary teacher, shout out to all elementary teachers though. I think you are amazing. I couldn’t do it everyday.)
I was hoping to find another long-term substitute position, hopefully teaching the same content to help me get more experience.
Yesterday I had an interview for another long-term English teaching substitute position starting next semester. I’m anxiously waiting to hear back, but I know that either way God has this all figured out as he has every step on the way.
Then of course that leaves the question what am I going to do next year? My husband and I are planning on moving really wherever I can find a teaching job (and there are several teaching jobs available now) but all I can do right now, is pray and trust God with that.
I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, but God got me this far. I don’t think he’s going to stop now.
It Seemed Like A Good Idea At Three Am 