Starting Over

Do you believe that things happen for a reason? Even if that reason is so unclear, or what happens to you is painful? Is it possible?

I thought I had everything figured out for myself. I was working as an Early Childhood Educator while finishing my Teacher of ESL program at Centennial College. I was going to stay at the childcare centre until I finished my (still unfinished) last remaining TESL courses, graduate, and go on to the next phase of my life.

One sunny Friday afternoon, however, Fate intervened, and I found myself laying on my neighbour's lawn, screaming in pain, having wrecked up my ankle by falling off the curb. In that brief, extra-graceful moment, everything changed, and I had no idea what I was going to do.

My ankle did not heal very well, nor very quickly. It wasn't broken, but there was bad damage to the ligament and I was on crutches for a while. I progressed from crutches to an air cast, and from the air cast to a lace-up brace that still, 4 months later, I wear more often than not.

Financial resources dwindling, I had to start looking for work. I'd had to leave my job at the childcare centre when I'd injured myself; such an injury is not exactly conducive to running around with children for 8 hours a day. Suddenly, nothing was as clear as it had been before. I was scared, and unsure what I was going to do for work. I was still trying to finish school, so I needed something flexible, and I wanted something that was related to the TESL field, if possible.

Because I wasn't a TESL graduate, I didn't qualify for the plentiful teaching jobs in the GTA. However, I did find two companies who hired me to do online ESL tutoring, via Skype, to students in Korea and Russia. I also started working at Centennial's Ashtonbee campus, working with some ESL students. In addition to all this (yes, there's more), I'm also working with a company called My Smart Hands, which does sign language instruction with parents and their babies.

The fact is, no matter what you think you have planned for yourself, you can never be too sure of how it's going to turn out. Hurting my ankle was painful, the recovery has been frustrating, trying to find enough work to pay my bills has been stressful, but it has all happened for a reason: I'm capable of far more than I ever thought, and I can take steps toward want I want out of life, if I'm willing to do what it takes.

I still have two credits to go, which means that I will be graduating with the April 09 class. How many more things will change before then? What else am I capable of that I never dreamed possible? What are YOU capable of?