My growing sports fanatic

The other day, while he was taking a shower, Cameron said to me, “Mom, I have a problem.”

Just his tone made me want to laugh. But in all seriousness I responded,“Yes? What's wrong, honey?”

“There are two things I want to be when I grow up and I can’t figure out which one.” He obviously was having a very pensive shower.

“Oh really? What are they?” I asked. I couldn’t wait to hear this. He used to say he’d either be a teacher or a doctor. But somehow I could tell he wasn’t quite thinking along these lines anymore.
“Well, one is to be a doctor.” Good. Glad that hadn’t changed.

"And the other one?" Please say teacher, please say teacher, I thought to myself.

“The other one is to be a football player.”

Hmm. Cameron has never played on a football team. We don’t watch football in our house. We don’t even talk about football. But he has a few friends who are football fanatics. Oh, and one of those friends has a Playstation football game that Cameron plays every time he’s at his house.

“A football player? Cameron you don’t even play football. You play soccer. You’ve been playing soccer for three years now!” I said, trying to remind him of what he really likes. Trying to make sure that he doesn’t try to switch fall sports on me. I played soccer and I like watching my son play soccer. Very little equipment to be responsible for. Very few injuries. Football?….um, no thank you.

“Well, I want to play football now. And now I don’t know if when I grow up I should be a football player or a doctor.” he stated, as if this really was a dilemma that needed to be solved now...while washing his hair.

“I’d say a doctor,” I responded, without hesitation of course.

“Why?” Cameron asked, sounding a bit disappointed in my suggestion.

I wanted to say, Because that’s the smart thing to be, the sensible thing to be, and according to your father the ONLY thing to be. But instead I responded with a more convincing, “Because doctors help people.”

“But football players can help people, too. Like the quarterback helps his teammates get a touch down, and then he gets to do a dance like this…" I’ll spare you the details of his little jig, as it was not pretty.

“Well, I still think you should be a doctor,” I said, as if my opinion really mattered to him at this point.

"Nah, I think I’ll be a football player."

Next thing you know, he's going to start telling me he wants to be like every other Minnesotan and be a hockey player. If he tells me that....well, we might just have to move.

Is this the one?

First I'd like to start off this post by stating that I realize how blessed I am. I am so fortunate to be in this situation, and for that I thank my husband for all his hard work.

I've made it quite clear to several people that I'm not a great stay-at-home mom. As a matter of fact, I try to get out of the house as much as possible. My kids pretty much expect us to go somewhere, or do something fun almost every day. The more we hang around the house (unless we're watching movies) the crazier and messier everything seems to get. And my patience wears tissue-paper thin.

Now, I have an amazing nanny, and I've finished all my Master's work, so lately, I've just been bored. And the decision of what to do next year has been on my mind all the time...stressing me out actually. Yes, as I stated in the beginning, I understand how fortunate I am to be in this situation, where I have choices and finanacially it doesn't matter what I do. I wrote in a previous post about my options after I graduated, and at the time I was leaning toward starting a consulting business where I would work with teachers..probably in charter schools. And this is what my husband thought would be wonderful. And my best friend out East was all interested in how I was going to do this and such. And at first I thought this would be great, but as the reality of this set in, I didn't really feel the passion for it. It got to the point where I found myself planning it out because I knew my husband was excited about it....but I wasn't anymore. Because honestly, I have this strong desire to work with adolescents...not just teachers. This is where I excel. It's in inspiring these kids to read, or write, or just do something, anything, that really gets me going and is exciting to me. That's where my true passion and calling lies.

So I started asking God to help me figure out what to do. And I told God that it would be really great if he'd just whomp me over the head with the opportunity that he wants me to take...because I have all sorts of different things I can look into, but I just don't know what exactly I should persue and put my energy into. In all honesty, I really just want a very part-time middle school position, where I can use my knowledge and passion to connect with kids.....BUT I don't want it to be such a time and energy committment that I can't enjoy the time I have with my own kids...AND I want it to be fairly close by. That's a HUGE request, because rarely are there part-time middle school positions as a Language Arts teacher.


But today, for some reason, when Sara had the kids and I was supposed to be making all sorts of doctors/dentist appointments and going through the paperwork piled up on my desk, I decided to just look into the employment link of a nearby school district.

And wouldn't you know, I came across a .2 FTE (that's like maybe 2 classes) Language Arts middle school position. Although I really don't know anything about the job, it fits all the logistical requirements I listed above.

So I immediately kicked myself in the butt and started creating an updated resume, a letter of inquiry, requesting letters of recommendation, completing an online application and e-mailing the principal of the school directly.

I'm not sure what, if anything, will come of all this. But please pray that if it's God's will, that I get an interview for this position. Because right now, I really do want it!