My husband died a little over a year ago. My son is a junior in college now. Significant time has passed and I decided it was time to start my career. I always knew that after devoting myself completely to my family and motherhood, I would eventually have a career. He just knew that he wasn’t going to be able to do both and be good at neither if he did it all at the same time. Well maybe I could have been good at both but not great…and I really needed and wanted to be a full time mom.
The time spent with my extended family last year did a lot of good for my spirit. The best part of it all was being able to build relationships with my little niece and nephews, whom I had never met. I didn’t realize how much I missed having little children in my world until they were there. At my nephew’s fourth birthday party, as hordes of little kids were running all over the house, I found myself playing Barbies with the girls and hide-and-seek with the boys. While the other adults gathered around the food, I had groups of children around me. I didn’t think anything of it. Actually, that’s just what usually happens when there are children around me. Although this time was different. My sister was there and she commented after the party that many of the parents had noticed how good she was with their young children. I had never really thought about it before, but when I started considering a career path, I kept thinking about that day.
I had some concerns about starting any kind of work. I absolutely hate anyone who makes demands on my day. I don’t like nine to five jobs. I don’t like not having control over my time. I don’t like not being able to go where I want to go when I want to go…so this was a problem for me. I have always been an early riser. I naturally wake up crazy early in the morning and have been like this all my life. I started looking at programs to get my teaching certification, even though I really wasn’t excited about working the hours of a school teacher. By sheer chance, I stumbled upon a job posting for an online teaching position for a company in Beijing, China that did not require certification. It only required that I have at least a four-year degree and experience teaching at any level…that I had both. You also had to be a native English speaker. Actually, I learned to speak Spanish first, but since I have lived on the mainland since I was three years old, I became fluent in English a long time ago.
I applied for the job and to my great joy, I got it. The downside (if you can call it that) is that my teaching hours are in Beijing time. I live in texas; So, that means that when it’s day there, it’s night here. Peak teaching hours are from 3:00 am to 7:30 am, my schedule… which for me is not a problem at all. At 8:00 am, I have finished my classes and I have the whole day to do whatever I want. Since the classes are online, I can teach in my pajamas as long as I look respectable from the waist up. Kids never know I have bunny slippers if I don’t show them! If I want more hours, I can give classes in the afternoons from 7:00 p.m. I choose all my own hours. I work as much or as little as I want. Students range from three years to thirteen years. There are several levels depending on the ability of the student. My favorite levels are the first two…beginners. I teach phonics, the alphabet, colors, shapes and numbers. I am not required to speak Chinese. I don’t have to create my own curriculum. The company already has a pre-designed curriculum. My job is to teach it and engage students with high energy and what they call “total physical response” or TPR. TPR is essentially a set of gestures that communicate non-verbal messages that you can understand. I use a lot of props: puppets, flash cards and all kinds of toys… and they pay me well for it. It’s my dream job!
Every student I meet has made an impact on me. I have found that if a student comes back to me for a class more than once, it changes my everyday life. I think about that boy all day long. I wonder what I can do to really engage them in their desire to learn. I laugh out loud at the little things they said or how they responded to certain things I said or did in class. I make up songs with their name or about the lesson I’m going to teach them in my head. Each and every one of them fills my heart with great joy! I find this work heals a part of my spirit that so longs to share and give love to any child willing to receive it. Maybe because I am a widow and my husband is gone. Maybe because my son is in college now and has run away from home… or maybe because I have so much love inside, I can freely give it to these little kids. In truth, maybe it’s just because I always wanted to be on Sesame Street when I was a little girl! Whatever the reason, teaching these little kids heals my heart in the deepest way.
The money I receive is nice. The fact that he now has a career after all these years is nice. Best of all, though, is the satisfaction and joy that comes from knowing that I have made a difference in this world. My actions directly impact young children on the other side of the world. For many of them I am the first foreign person they meet or see. I not only represent the company I work for, but America itself in their little minds. They are forming lifelong opinions based on me about America. That’s huge! Who knows who these children will be when they grow up? I take this tremendous responsibility very seriously in my mind. It is a great honor for me… and an even greater privilege!
