"Follow your dreams." "Never let go of your dreams." "Your dream is what drives you."
How often have we heard such phrases? So many of the self-help books I've been devouring over the last few years talk about this idea to figure out your dreams and go after it with reckless abandon (ok and a detailed plan to make it happen.)
But I think I've finally come to the terms with the notion that dreams can change.
What I was dreaming of 4 years ago when I left the classroom to pursue a career traveling and training teachers to have a wider impact while learning how to be a better presenter in English and my second language of Spanish has transformed. I was eager to travel, to learn and change my career path.
Over the last 4 years, I've grown in so many ways. I learned how to build online courses in English and Spanish, I've given keynotes in English and Spanish, I've done last-minute 6 hour workshops. I learned how to run a publishing department and gained so many skills I never imagined I would in the 4 years I spent with EdTechTeam and Nivel A.
When I was let go in April 2019, my world came to a halt. (Listen to the podcast episode "We have to let you go.") What I thought I had so wanted for myself, my career and my family was suddenly taken away from me. I was offered another job with the Mexican branch and readily accepted as our family needs my income right now.
My job slowly transitioned over the last 12 months, rather than jumping on airplanes to work with teams all over the US and Canada, I was riding a gazillion ubers and busses around Mexico by myself. I was spending long days and many hours training teachers in Spanish on how to use Google tools. It's been a good challenge and shown me what I'm capable of even when I don't always feel confident.
But it's been hard. It's been lonely. Our team in Mexico is spread out and I am thankful for the flexibility this job lends itself to, but I feel pretty alone most days. The work is solitary and somewhat monotonous. Perhaps everyone feels this way to some extent during the Pandemic that has changed the landscape of our workplace and home life so much.
My dream is shifting. As much as I was ready to walk away from the classroom for a few years, I'm ready to walk back into a school. I'm in a different season now with a 2 year old and a 5 year old at home. Traveling and being away for days at a time or working into the late evenings is getting to be exhausting. I feel as though I'm missing out on things at home and I'm ready to be more present.
I'm so thankful for what I've learned, how I've been challenged and the chapters I've added to my story. I'm ready to start a new chapter in a school once again. And ready to bring all sorts of new knowledge, skills and a renewed passion into the school to work with teachers and students.
I've missed the colorful fun that students add to life. Adults are wonderful (lol, I am one after all), but I've missed the rigor that students provide and being able to remind them of all the potential they have ahead of them. And I'm excited to be in one place where I can make more of a lasting impact than traveling to hundreds of schools for an event and then leaving when it's over.
So as of yesterday, August 3, 2020, Ms. Dominique is back at school.
I've accepted that my dreams can ebb and flow, that dreams change as we grow and that's the beauty of always dreaming, you never know what you may reach for next.
Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to teach. Though I started with my stuffed animals and younger siblings, I'm happy to say I'm walking back in the direction that I started in years ago.
And I'm so grateful for the job opportunity that opened up as the Special Programs Enrichment Coordinator at the school I walked away from four years ago and the school that both my children will attend.
Here's a free tech tip for all the readers, the school asked me for a photo with a white background, so I took one of my recent headshots from the forest and used remove.bg to remove the background and put a white wall behind me. ⬇️