Resign and Redefine

When I was little, I wanted to be a doctor. I would take my stuffed animals, color on them with red crayon, and turn my family room into an emergency room. Thinking back on that now, if Natalie displayed such behavior, I might see it as a red flag for a deeper issue, but back then I went about my game of pretend. Even when I wasn't so little, I was still convinced that medicine was for me, I took my sciences in high school and was set to go off to school majoring in Biology. However, it was not meant to be, well really, Organic Chemistry was not meant to be, and so I redefined my dreams and went to college as an undeclared Liberal Arts major. So cliche.

At the end of my first year, after only being really excited to go to my 8am Freshman English class, I realized that, perhaps, English was a more realistic path. Of course, when one becomes an English major, the question that follow is, "What are you going to be? A teacher?" I was NOT going to be a teacher. I WOULD NOT be a teacher. I was going to go into magazine publication. And so I gave up my summers at the pool, lounging in the sun, for a stuffy commute into New York City in an effort to beef up my resume and carve out my new path.

Post college, I let my father talk me into taking a job I didn't really want. One, that on the interview, I knew wasn't what I had set out to become. But it was a good salary and quick benefits and so I redefined, again. But sitting in a cubicle was not for me, and so....I went back to school to become...what else, a teacher. I loved it. I was good at it. I didn't have to sit in a cubicle OR give up my summer at the pool, lounging in the sun. Kristen, redefined.

Since then, I have become a wife and a mother and the other night, Dan gave me the green light to resign from my current teaching position and, what else, redefine.