How I Left the Corporate World for Montessori – Part 2

If you haven’t read part 1, you can find it here.

 

I was accepted to the UT MBA program (hook ‘em horns!) with a large scholarship.  I grew up loving Longhorn football and all things UT, so this was very exciting.

I left my job pretty much right away to take some time off before business school.  My husband works in IT and his company agreed to let him work remotely, so we decided to move to Wisconsin, where my husband is from, for six months before heading to Austin for school.

My husband’s family has a house on a lake a few hours northwest of Milwaukee and they graciously let us live there for a few months.  It was the best.

I fondly refer to this time in my life as my retirement.  We moved there at the beginning of February, which provided just enough winter to enchant this Texas girl.  I went sledding daily right outside the house.  We went for canoe rides where my hands were aching from the cold, but it was worth it to hear the slow drip of melting snow and see the animals deprived of their hiding places with no leaves on the bushes and trees.

We saw countless deer, sandhill cranes almost as tall as I am, foxes, river otters, raccoons, and so much more.  It was like my favorite kind of vacation, extended for six months.

I sat on the deck and read.  I experimented with cooking.  I wrote a book that will likely never be published, but that’s okay; that’s the sort of thing one does in retirement.

I spent hours walking the country roads and thinking.  I came to have a favorite cow, a favorite barn.  The kind people of Arkdale would stop and ask me if I needed a ride.  I guess they thought I was lost.  And I sort of was.

As much as I was enjoying my retirement, I began to feel a sense of dread.  It started small enough that I didn’t even recognize it.  Does that ever happen to you?  I often get a funny feeling, a shadow of uneasiness, before I realize what I’m anxious about, or even realize that the anxiety is there.

As the months went by, I started getting emails about orientation and new student trips.  All I felt was dread.

Now I am a worrier by nature, so at first I thought this was just a fear of change, a fear of being thrown in with a bunch of new people.  But there was no excitement to balance it out, not even a little bit.  This was not a good sign.

I began to doubt that I should go to business school, but I felt trapped.  I had no other skills, no other plans.  I had quit my job, spent a bunch of time and money applying to school, gotten my family excited about it, and moved us across the country.  It didn’t seem right to just say “uh, sorry guys, just kidding.”

But it also didn’t seem right to dig myself deeper into a career I knew in my heart wasn’t for me.  If I hadn’t had the luxury of those long days to think and reflect and pray, I know I would now be the proud recipient of an MBA, going to an office each day and trying not to question it.

But in those long hours, it just sort of came to me.  And it seemed so very obvious.  Of course this was what I should do.  I had always loved school, loved children, loved Montessori.  I had taught Sunday School and Vacation Bible School with my mom and loved it.  Most importantly, it was something I believed in and knew could make a difference.

 

It was May by this point though and with schools letting out for summer, I had to act fast.  I quickly researched and contacted every Montessori school in Austin I could find.  We decided to still move to Austin, as we love the city and it’s near my family in Houston.  Plus, you know, Austin rocks.

We flew to Austin to look for apartments and I interviewed at two schools.  The first one was just not right and my heart sank a little bit.  I really had no backup plan.

I pulled up to the second school, Hawthorne Montessori, and knew immediately it was the kind of place I wanted to be.  The first thing I saw was a child peacefully painting at an easel outside among the trees.  Peeking through the window of the 3-6 classroom, it reminded me so much of my own wonderful days in an early childhood class.  The head of school was wonderful and I tried to remain calmly enthusiastic and not beg for a job.

She took a chance on me and for that I’m forever grateful.  I was an assistant in the toddler and 3-6 classroom for a year, took my training and interned, and then taught at this wonderful school.

I look forward to going back to teaching someday, but also feel so lucky to have had this experience before having my son.  I learned so much about myself, about children, and about the importance of giving yourself the gift of time to explore this beautiful world and find your place in it, the place that calls to you, the place you’re truly meant to be.

You may also like

6 Comments

  1. I love this! So happy that you were able to give yourself the time to figure out what you really wanted instead of rushing into something you felt like you had to do. I know the feeling of thinking you will disappoint people in your life if you make a certain decision. One of my other favorite quotes in that Bittersweet book goes something like “people really aren’t thinking about you as much as you think they are.” I try to remember that when I feel like a decision I make will make people mad or sad – that the thought probably hasn’t even crossed their mind and they have their own things to worry about!

    1. Thank you! That is SO true – I definitely have a tendency to care too much about what other people think of me and, you’re right, most of them don’t care! People are busy thinking about their own lives. I seriously can’t wait to read that book, I love all of the quotes you’ve shared.

  2. Are you thinking of homeschooling your son? Or going back to work and having him attend the same school? I was wondering if you have any favorite Montessori books or websites about homeschooling toddlers/preschool that you’d recommend? Thanks!
    I think you can self-publish on Amazon if you want to do something with that book you wrote 😉 Congrats on that! I write and write but never finish…

    1. I honestly have no long term plan, but I would love to send him to Montessori school if possible! I will likely go back to work part time in January and he’ll come to school with me, but the school where I teach only goes through kindergarten. There is a great public Montessori school in Austin, so I’m hoping to send him there for elementary, but it’s a lottery system, so I’ll have to see if he gets in. If he doesn’t get in there, I may consider homeschooling (Montessori school is expensive!), but I haven’t looked into it too much yet. I love the montessori blogs http://www.howwemontessori.com , https://fishiesinarow.blogspot.ca/ , and http://www.thekavanaughreport.com/ , though I don’t think any of them homeschool. I also love the books Montessori from the Start and Montessori’s Own Handbook. I may try to self-publish some day, just for fun!

      1. Thanks for the recommendations! There is a Montessori school really close to me and I’ve looked into it for next year (3 year old program). I looked at a 1/2 day preschool program (not Montessori) this past year but decided to keep my toddler at home since I pay for childcare in my home for my baby anyway. Kids cost a fortune!

        1. They really do! I think three is when I would start my son in preschool too if I don’t go back to work. That’s great that there’s a Montessori school close by, I hope it works out!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *