Good-Bye Full-Time, Hello Uncertainty

While my work at SmartSites hasn’t officially come to a close, my time at SmartSites has. I made my decision to pursue higher education many months ago, knowing that the day I stop working full-time would eventually descend onto me. I just didn’t think eventually would come so soon.

Over the past two years, having seen friends struggle to find work, I consider myself fortunate. I secured a summer internship at a non-profit a few weeks before I graduated college, and they needed me enough to hire me full-time. After a year and a professional re-direct, I transitioned to SmartSites and its foreign territory of online marketing. Despite my lack of formal marketing education, I paid attention to my coworkers, I read, I wrote, I learned, all the while getting paid for it.

What’s the trade-off now? I’m exchanging five-day-a-week work, friendly co-workers, and growing marketing experience for a Master’s Degree, the stress of student teaching and classes, and uncertainty at the amount of English literature jobs in the Tri-State Area.

Working at SmartSites has thus far been great, but I always had school on the brain. One day I realized that my secret desire to go into teaching was not going to silence itself. I could only keep my imaginary lesson plans to myself for so long before needing formal education. If I want to go back to school, I have to do it while I still have the energy to handle many tasks without burning myself out.

Especially in such a transition, uncertainty feels inevitable. But I have no doubt in my ability to continue using what I learned at SmartSites. Teaching is like marketing: you’re marketing yourself, your lessons, and passion for your subject. You have to teach it in a way that’s informative yet engaging. I look forward to bringing all of that to the classroom with me moving forward.

Until then, I welcome the opportunity to be young and in limbo. To decrease my current hours to part-time in the hopes that spending most of my energy on the degree I’m working towards will one day be useful. To balance school, work, and a social life without tripping over myself trying to keep each commitment straight. And especially to continue working for a company that lets me write blogposts from the comfort of my home and time.