The New Challenge

 I’ve been busy.  I haven’t posted.  Those two things are related.  Gee, you’ve never read that on a blog before.  Boring!  However, the reasons why might hold some interest for you.  To find out, read on.

For the past few years, I’ve been in seeking mode.  I knew my current career path wasn’t going to do it for me long term, but I wasn’t quite sure where to set my sights next. 

Fortunately, I know what to do in situations like this.  I pay attention to what excites me and draws my attention.  I also take note of what life allows to work well and not work so well.  I trust that.  Things just flow better when you’re on track.  They just do.  I trust that and it has always served me well when I “listened.”

(Please note that this is abundantly different than saying that difficult things aren’t worth the effort.  You’ll see soon enough  that this is not at all the case here.)

Again, the philosophy of trusting that when things flow well.  How has this played out for me lately?  Out of the part time work I picked up, it was instructional roles.  First, it was teaching SAT skills for The Princeton Review.  Around that time I finally started volunteering with the Communities in Schools program like I’ve wanted to for months.  As it happens, I’m using my refreshed math skills to tutor high school math!  More recently, I got certified to teach the GRE and am nearly complete with the Faculty Certification process at University of Phoenix to become a ground facilitator. 

The other part of the observation project is noticing what topics pique my interest.  What articles and blogs do I most want to read online?  What books am I most interested in checking out?  What’s a relevant topic for a parent of a soon to be school age child?  The answer to all of these is education. 

Digging a little deeper, I’m most interested in researching and advising in the area of Educational Policy.  Drawing from my human resources gained expertise in talent acquisition, development and assessment, I know I have something to offer.

First, though, is obtaining requisite credibility and getting myself educated with predominant body of knowledge in the field.  This necessity leads to some formidable new goals.  More school for me!  I’ve kinda always wanted to get a Ph.D. any way, but it never seemed practical.  It’s still not practical, even less so with a young child, but I feel driven.

Ph.D.  programs?  Yes, there are a couple of good programs local to me.  I’m really lucky to live in a location so close to several fine institutions of post-secondary education.  NC State and Duke have some great, highly relevant programs. 

I’m partial to the Duke program for reasons that I’m going to not explicate here to keep this post short.  Both will be challenging to get into, but Duke more so I think.  With this goal, I get that anxious feeling I used to get when I signed up for a race or event I wasn’t sure I could really do well in but felt I could perhaps if I prepared and executed really well.  It’s a stretch, but doable.

So what am I up to now?  Lots of things that move me toward that goal and lower the priority of frequent blog posts.  Don’t worry.  I’ll keep you updated.

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